Bollywood takes The Italian Job for a spin

The moment will soon come, on screens across south Asia, when Abhishek Bachchan, one of Indian cinema's hottest stars, turns to his comrades in crime, and says, in Hindi: "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" The Italian Job is being remade Bollywood style. Quite what that means for the 1969 crime caper movie, known for Michael Caine's role as a master criminal set on a huge heist and for epitomising British swinging 60s cool, is still unclear. "It'll mean bursting into song, in the middle and, of course, the end," joked Anupama Chopra, a film critic based in Mumbai. Chopra said that "Indianising" material had once meant toning down the onscreen violence and sex but now audiences were "much more open". Directors said they had added roles for two heroines to The Italian Job's otherwise male-dominated plot. After a shoot in the Indian resort of Goa this year, the cast transfers to New Zealand next year, then has a stint in Russia. Alongside Bachchan, son of the Bollywood actor and producer Amitabh Bachchan, the film will employ an array of top local names. Vikram Malhotra, the producer, said the principal story-line would be faithful to the original but "suitable [adaptation] will be done keeping in mind the Indian audience sensibilities". The film is due to reach cinemas in the second half of 2011. Indian remakes of western crime films have been common for years. There have been Hindi versions of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Michael Mann's Collateral, and Bryan Singer's The Usual Suspects, among others. The story of the Italian Job involves a plan to steal gold worth $4m as it is delivered in Turin to the car maker Fiat. The film is famous for the gang's use of Mini Coopers to escape from the city, along with Caine's line, last year voted the greatest one-liner of all time in a film fan poll. Directors of the new film claim their version is "as good as the original". Quite how, without sparking a diplomatic incident or enraging film purists, Bollywood deals with the scene where the gang boss Caine leaves jail in a car stolen from the Pakistani ambassador, remains to be seen.