Lights, camera, Amen: Church wields the movie camera

July 3, 2005

Sunday July 3 2005 00:00 IST

NEW DELHI: Risky sex, hot hunk Aryan Vaid and the mall-ternative

lifestyle -- the Catholic Church is taking hot tips from cool

filmmakers to produce a Bollywood-style movie to push across the

message of `healthy personal relationships'.

With this in mind, the archdiocese of Delhi has pumped in Rs 1.3

crore, with the help of voluntary organisations, to produce a Hindi

movie with a message.

The film is to be directed by Ajay Kanchan, a former Unicef officer.

The church has also roped in Mahesh Bhatt to lend his expertise. The

movie, entitled `Aisa Kyon Hota Hai' (Why Does This Happen?)

revolves around HIV-positive characters and imparts moral lessons on

the need for better communal relations and AIDS awareness. Vishesh

Films, owned by Bhatt, is to manage the film launch and the

publicity campaign for the Hindi version of the film.

Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya, Alka Yagnik will lend their

voices to the movie's six songs, under the direction of music

director Touseef Akthar. The choreography is by Raju Khan. " The film

is based on family and personal relationships. It's message teaches

viewers to respect and care about personal relationships, as the

consequences could be social ills like communal disharmony and the

spread of diseases like AIDS, " says Father Dominic Emmanuel,

spokesman of the Delhi Catholic Archdiocese and the man behind the

movie. Father Emmanuel is a seasoned media hand, and has produced

programmes for BBC World Service and the Philippines Radio.

" We thought the medium of Bollywood will help us send a message

across to people of all sections of society. The movie will also be

dubbed in Tamil and Telugu as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are home

to a vast chunk of India's AIDS- affected people, " Emmanuel said.

The film has a star-studded cast, which includes ny Lever in the

role of a basketball coach, Aryan Vaid, Avtar Gill, VJ-turned-model

Megha Chatterjee, Shruti Mehrotra, a Telugu actor and Rati Agnihotri.

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