MUMBAI: Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan announced on Thursday that he is to star in an official Hindi-language remake of hit American movie “Forrest Gump.”
Khan will play the role of Laal Singh Chaddha, based on Tom Hanks’s character in the 1994 multiple-award-winning US classic.
“I have always loved ‘Forrest Gump’ as a script. It is a life-affirming story. It is a feel-good film. It is a film for the whole family,” Khan told reporters in Mumbai on his 54th birthday.
“Forrest Gump” won six Oscars, including best picture, best director and best actor for Hanks.
The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and was based on Winston Groom’s 1986 novel of the same name.
It centers on the life of a dim-witted but kind man whose life mirrors key events in America in the 20th century.
Khan, who last appeared in box office flop “Thugs of Hindostan,” said he would lose 20 kilograms (45 pounds) for the role.
“I have to be lean and slim,” he explained, adding that shooting would start in October.
Hollywood blockbusters have long inspired the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry.
Action-thriller “Kaante” (2002) was influenced by Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” while “Sarkar” (2005) was likened to “The Godfather” and “Chachi 420” was similar to “Mrs Doubtfire,” although they weren’t official remakes.
Khan’s adaptation of “Forrest Gump” is expected to hit screens next year. Khan said the rights to the movie were bought from Paramount.
An official remake of 2014 Hollywood film “The Fault in Our Stars” is also in the works.
Aamir Khan to star in Bollywood ‘Forrest Gump’ remake
Aamir Khan to star in Bollywood ‘Forrest Gump’ remake
- Aamir Khan will play the role of Laal Singh Chaddha, based on Tom Hanks’s character in the 1994 multiple-award-winning US classic
- Aamir Khan’s adaptation of ‘Forrest Gump’ is expected to hit screens next year
Highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm’ exhibition in Dubai
DUBAI: Here are three highlights from Saher Nassar’s ‘Chronicles from the Storm,’ which runs until March 18 at Zawyeh Gallery in Dubai.
‘Chronicles No. 1’
In his latest solo exhibition, the Palestinian artist “reimagines events that push past emotional capacity toward moral exhaustion, questioning the ethical certainty of the human spirit when faced with immense suffering,” according to the show catalogue, with works that “contemplate the devaluation of hope as a fundamental factor of human survival, sometimes revealed as currency for escape, sometimes seen in people resorting to their primal instincts to endure.”
‘Chronicles No. 8’
“Drawing from both personal and collective experiences, the exhibition unfolds as a layered reflection on how repeated trauma reshapes perception, belief, and the instinct to survive,” a press release for the show states. “Nasser translates lived realities into visual studies that move beyond immediate reaction. Rather than seeking resolution or catharsis, the works dwell in a state of moral exhaustion.”
‘Chronicles No. 3’
In “Chronicles from the Storm,” the UAE-based multidisciplinary artist is not attempting to offer answers, the press release suggests; rather, he is “bearing witness” and “inviting viewers to sit with unresolved questions and the uneasy persistence of the human spirit in the aftermath of the storm.” The works on show “carry a restrained intensity, resisting spectacle in favor of contemplation,” the release continues.
