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Indian
cinema is poised for a global leap. The
world may not be queuing up at our doorstep
to parade its best, but Indian filmmakers
are poised to increase their market share
across the world. At the moment we have
less than half per cent of the global cinema
market, but control one-third of the mindshare.
Plans are on to tap newer overseas markets,
going beyond the Indian diaspora in the
U.S., U.K. and South East Asia. Indian filmmakers
are seriously looking at China, West Asia
and Latin America as possible avenues for
greater revenue and global attention. Germany
and France are also coming up for greater
attention. At the ongoing International
Film Festival of India, L. Suresh, president,
South Indian Film Exporters Association,
said: "There is a vast market for Rajnikant
films in Japan, just as there is a huge
market for Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan
in the U.S. and U.K. Last year a Rajnikant
film was subtitled in German and Turkish
to be released there." South Indian films
constitute roughly 55 per cent of the total
production of Indian films. Last year Rajnikant's
Chandramukhi became the highest Indian grosser
at the box office across the world. The
former president of Film and Television
Producers Guild, Amit Khanna, seconded the
claim, saying there is an emerging global
market for Indian films. Citing a multiplex
in Paris that recently played Omkara, Water
and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, he said it was
early days yet for Indian films abroad though
there was a demand for all kind of Indian
cinema, mainstream, regional as well as
alternative cinema.
Positive
signals
"It is too early to say how the market will
react. But the signals are positive. We
have even started dubbing Indian films in
Latin American languages. We are looking
at China too where for a long time there
has been a thriving market of pirated DVDs
of Indian films." Bobby Bedi, Chairman,
CII Entertainment Committee, promised "focussed,
segmented marketing" not done till now.
If plans fructify, Indian cinema will make
its presence felt across the world, and
much beyond its traditional strongholds
such as southeast Asia, the Gulf, the U.K.
and the U.S., where there was a great demand
for Indian films. Bhojpuri cinema was set
to make inroads in Mauritius and west Asia,
just as Kannada films were in demand in
east Asia.
Courtesy:
www.hindu.com, November 25, 2006
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The
first all-granite Hindu temple to ever be
built outside of India is slowly taking
shape on the tiny Hawaiian island of Kauai.
It is a massive project - involving a village
of craftsmen in Bangalore, a score of Hindu
monks on Kauai and nearly 9,000 individual
donors from 65 countries. Two decades in
the making, once completed, the Iravian
temple will be the centrepiece of the 51-acre
San Marga Sanctuary. The sanctuary is already
home to another temple to Shiva, a monastery
and acres of landscaped tropical gardens
visited by approximately 10,000 visitors
each year. The monastery complex is located
on the banks of the Wailua River, in the
shadow of the 5,200-ft Mount Waialeale,
the highest point on the island. The location
is sacred to native Hawaiians and said to
be the site of one of seven ancient temples
that descended from Waialeale to the Pacific
Ocean. Kauai is one of the most remote places
in America. At just 553 square miles, it
is sparsely inhabited by only 50,000 people.
Nicknamed 'the Garden Isle' for its lush
vegetation, it is popular with Hollywood
and over 100 movies, including Jurassic
Park, have been filmed on its beaches and
forests.While it is certainly an idyllic
locale, Kauai is not the most obvious home
for a Hindu order. Hawaii does not have
many Hindus - there are just 20 Hindus living
outside the monastery on Kauai, and on the
most populous island, Oahu, only 600 of
1.5 million residents are Hindus.
"We
see this temple as a gift of design, beauty
and architecture from India to America,"
says Paramacharya Palaniswami, one of the
22 monks in residence at Kauai's Hindu monastery.
"It is a bridge between cultures in a place
where many people have not been to Asia."
In 1970, the late Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami,
the preceptor of an order of all-male monks
then located in California, visited Kauai
and decided to relocate his order to the
island. The monks built a temple, named
Kadavul for the Tamil name for God, and
installed an ancient six-foot-tall bronze
Shiva Nataraja. It was the first Shiva temple
built in the west. Then, in 1975, the Satguru
had a three-part vision of a new temple.
Over the next decade and half, the monks
developed plans for Iravian. The design
by renowned temple architect V Ganapati
Sthapati, former prinicipal of the Government
College of Architecture in Tamil Nadu, is
in traditional South Indian chola style.
The ceiling is supported by 10 large pillars,
each with 24 sculpted panels depicting Hindu
practices and philosophy. The 35-foot cupola
in the sanctum is made from a single seven-tonne
stone carved by four men over three years.
It is capped with 23 carat gold. Each white
granite stone is hand-quarried and carved
using traditional techniques in Bangalore
by a team of 72 artisans before being shipped
10,000 miles to Kauai. Already, some 3.5
million pounds of stones - that's 80 shipping
containers - have made the journey from
India to Hawaii.
Once
they reach the site, a team of eight carvers
assemble the pieces and provide finishing
touches. Carving is approximately 90 per
cent complete as is over half the work necessary
in Kauai. Construction is expected to be
finished by 2014, over two decades after
the first stone was ceremonially chipped
by Satguru Subramuniyaswami in December
1990. According to Palaniswami, this remote
island location allows the monks the freedom
to be high-minded. The monks adhere to a
traditional ascetic schedule that involves
several hours of mediation and service beginning
each morning at 4 am. But the monastery
is well connected to the world thanks to
modern technology. The order publishes a
quarterly magazine, Hinduism Today, serves
as a media resource on Hinduism for many
American publications and the monks even
have wireless internet. However, the new
temple is being built with traditional and
very basic technology, the most common used
tools are chisels and hammers. Satguru Subramuniyaswami
believed that rock is a living element and
using dynamite and power tools damaged the
stone. He also wanted the ancient techniques
of the silpis (carvers) to be preserved
for future generations. Construction costs
are expected to total $ 8 million; the monks
are also raising an additional $ 8 million
as endowment to cover operating costs. So
far, 8,900 donors, including schoolchildren
in Mauritius and Fiji have donated $ 9 million
to the project. The two temples are set
in landscape gardens containing 25 ponds
and rare varieties of tropical flowers and
shrubs. There is ayurvedic garden, groves
of giant banyan trees, and a collection
of 250 rare varieties of the Hawaiian ti
plants, used traditionally to make hula
skirts. The monks also have planted a 407-acre
forest including several sandalwood trees.
"The sandalwood trees will not be cut for
500 years so that in the future temples
can have sandalwood doors," Palaniswami
said.
Courtesy:
www.hindustantimes.com, November 03, 2006
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