Gujarati boy, Surinam lass for Bhojpuri flick

VADODARA: A Gujarati film actor from Saurashtra, the Bhojpuri film industry and a beauty queen of Indian origin from Surinam in South America could well have come from different planets. But, they will soon share a very small space together - a movie screen.

Picture this: The first ever cross-border Bhojpuri film Saiyyan Chitchor will have Chandan Rathod, who is from Savarkundla, in the lead role. His leading lady is Fareisa Joemmanbaks from Surinam, whose mother has her roots in Bihar. Fareisa was crowned Filmy Miss India World-Wide 2007 held in Fords, New Jersey in April last year. And, this will be the first Bhojpuri film to premiere in Holland and Surinam before making it to movie halls in the Hindi heartland!

Chandan’s father Keshav Rathod — who has written scripts for Gujarati, Marathi and Bhojpuri films — has scripted this film too. However, he says Chandan bagged this film by chance. "The film crew was visiting Rajvansh Palace in Rajpipla in January for a shoot where I was working on a Gujarati film,” Chandan said. "The crew, however, could not go ahead with the shoot as Bhojpuri star Manoj Tiwari did not arrive for more than a week. Finally, they replaced Tiwari with me.” With a budget of Rs 1.5 crore, Saiyyan Chitchor is one among expensive Bhojpuri films.

"This is Fareisa’s first movie. She is a successful model and is now trying her luck in films. We also have another Dutch actor Narsingh Balwantsingh in the film,” Chandan said.

The producers decided to premiere the film in Surinam as it has a large Hindoestanen — Dutch word for Indians — population. "The film’s story revolves around rebirth, where the hero and heroine land up in Bihar from Holland, only to find that they were lovers in a previous birth who had been cruelly separated,” said Chandan.