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What
character role is Gaurav Chopra essaying
in the Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connely,
Djimon Hounsou starrer The Blood Diamond?
Is he playing an Indian or French journalist
in the film set for an Indian release in
the coming week?
Gaurav who has about a couple of minutes
of acting and screen time in the movie insists
that he plays an Indian journo, but the
credits in the screeners and in the official
site of the film credit him as a French
journalist.
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"The fact is that I am playing an
Indian reporter," he says emphatically.
"The credits have not been updated
in the site or in the screeners of the movie."
The film is about the illegal diamond trafficking
and civil unrest in Sierra Leone Africa.
Gaurav is part of a press convoy -consisting
of Connely, DiCaprio, Hounsou and other
journalists - which is seeking to do the
rounds of rebel camps in buses and a SUV.
The rebels, mainly minor children, are pitched
in battles and skirmishes with government
troops as they indiscriminately go about
killing innocents and capturing territory
in the African region.
In the track involving Gaurav, the journos
get down from the bus en-route to the rebel
camps to take pictures of a van which has
been attacked by the brigands only to have
the latter train their guns on them. As
they scramble to get back on the bus, Gaurav
blocks Hounsou - who has rescued a child,
from boarding the bus saying there is no
space. When Connely asks him to give the
black man space, he screams at her to give
up her seat for him. DiCaprio then grabs
Gaurav by the collar roughs him up a bit
and tells him to allow Hounsou on board.
The Titanic and The Departed
star finally decides against boarding the
bus, and instead chooses to travel with
Connely and Hounsu in a SUV. Thankfully
because a few scenes later rebels and government
soldiers once again attack the convoy and
practically everyone in the bus is killed
whereas the trio in the SUV escape..
Gaurav says the experience of working with
a director like Edward Zwick was really
great and that he would cherish it for personal
reasons rather than professional. "I
was treated with great respect during the
fifteen days that I was shooting there.
I was never treated as somebody who had
come down from India for a cameo. In fact
I was treated equally like the main leads
of the film and that was amazing."
Gaurav says he missed out on a role in a
European TV show Snitch earlier this
year because of his contract with Nach
Baliye. Now, he is looking forward to
The Blood Diamond's release.
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By THE TELLY CHAKKAR
TEAM |
Posted
on 30 December 2006 7:30 pm
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