South Africa’s ‘Mr Bones’ heads for Bollywood

Ace South African comedian Leon Schuster is heading to Bollywood country for the sequel to his hit film ‘Mr Bones’.

Film producer Anant Singh said here that the sequel to “Mr Bones” would be partly shot on location in the Indian subcontinent as a co-production with an Indian production company.

The announcement followed a 10-day location scouting exercise in India by Schuster and director Gray Hofmeyr. And sure enough, Schuster is heading for Mumbai.

“‘Mr Bones’ was very popular with Indian audiences, both in theatres and on TV, and it was dubbed into Hindi and other local languages,” Singh said.

“We are thrilled to be doing a film in India which has the largest film industry in the world, making more movies than Hollywood, and which is supported by a vast audience from a population of more than a billion people.”

“Mr Bones” became an international hit after Schuster played a white African sangoma (traditional healer) who gets involved in a range of comic capers combining slapstick and cross-cultural idiosyncrasies. Schuster has had numerous hits in the past decade using this unique brand of comedy.

Singh said the Bones character was thus ideally set to end up in India to continue his journey in an exotic location and to continue creating his brand of chaos.

Singh said his company VideoVision has been in discussion with leading Indian filmmakers Mohan Shetty of AdLabs, Bobby Bedi of Kaleidoskope Entertainment and Ronnie Screwvala of UTV.

Schuster, who was present during the announcement, said: “The Indian audiences enjoy visual humour and I am thrilled that they embraced ‘Mr Bones.’

“Just looking around the country, the people and all the goings-on, Gray and I already have some really great ideas for a really hilarious and amusing script. I am truly looking forward to my Indian adventure.”

The sequel to “Mr Bones” is to be shot in India later this year and marks the first time that a South Africa-India co-production would be shot in both the countries.

— IANS

Categories: Bollywood News and Gossip