Berlin - Cinecittà

After the opening night with the granddaddies of Rock – the Stones – and Martin Scorsese, there is no slowdown in town. More than 20.000 accredited guests among them 4000 journalists mixed with movie junkies from all over the world and one of the biggest fan clubs all together drowned the city. A weird colourful crowd of women dressed in the traditional saree in anticipation of Shah Rukh Khanh – the biggest star in Bollywood and one of the most beloved crushes in the world.

OM SHANTI OM
IND/GBR 2007
168 min
Director: Farah Khan
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone

Already on february 5^th the premiere of Om Shanti Om was sold out after five minutes - some where sold for almost 350 Euro on Ebay afterwards - no wonder that many tears of joy were seen, when Khan himself gave away more tickets on the red carpet. Thanks to the organisation of the Berlinale team another screening was scheduled the same night. King Khan (his nickname in India) enjoyed giving autographs (even on a babybelly!), hugs and kisses for about 30 minutes. The atmosphere in the cinema was euphoric and very entertaining, one could feel the excitement of the audience - lots of clapping, singing and screaming during the film made the screening into a real Indian experience. At the end everyone was dancing, including Dorothee Wenner (director of the Berlinale Talent Campus) who was trying very hard to get Khan to Berlin for many years and finally succeeded. During the Q&A the Indian superstar confirmed that he will be coming back to Berlin soon to shoot for his next film, mostly action scenes, since he will be taking over the European mafia in the story. His German fans prefer him as the romantic charming and dancing protagonist that he performs in most of his films, which is one of the reasons why he was part of a Berlinale Talent Campus Talk with the title: Love International.

Alongside the stars in the program bad news from the Jury: Formerly eight international guests called to form the Competition Jury got reduced to six members only. Sandrine Bonnaire and Susanne Bier had to cancel their participation in the very last minute because of some unpredictable urgency for their own next film projects. The Jury took it easy.