The series has given all the desis a personal connection to the programme thanks to Ms. Marvel‘s relationships with Pakistan and India. Being a desi lover of Hollywood, we barely see any representation, which is one of our greatest complaints. Hollywood films frequently portray our people and our nation in stereotyped and caricatural ways, but happily this is a tendency that is gradually improving. However, nothing brings a smile to our faces quite like spotting a comparable character or setting in a Hollywood production. These Hollywood productions below were films shot in India.
1. Eat Pray Love (2010)
Director- Ryan Murphy
Locations in India- Delhi and Pataudi
Liz Gilbert had a husband, a home, and a great career—everything a modern woman is supposed to aspire to. Yet she still felt lost, perplexed, and unsure of what she truly desired in life. Just like so many other women do. Gilbert, who has just been a divorce and is at a crossroads in her life, pushes outside of her comfort zone. Hence, she risks everything to make a change. She then sets off on a voyage around the world that turns into a quest for self-discovery. In Italy, she learns the true joy of sustenance via food. In India, she learns the power of prayer. Surprisingly, in Bali, she finds the inner calm and balance of true love.
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
Director- David Fincher
Location in India- Varanasi
Benjamin Button is a peculiarly born man. He suddenly appears old and ages backward in a nursing home in New Orleans. Twelve years after his birth, he meets Daisy, a little girl who enters and exits his life as a dancer as she becomes older. Although he has a variety of strange experiences throughout his life, Benjamin is motivated by his bond with Daisy. Along with the hope that their paths will cross at the ideal moment.
3. The Namesake (2006)
Director- Mira Nair
Locations in India- Kolkata and Agra
A young Bengali woman named Ashima accepts Ashoke’s marriage proposal in 1977. After the wedding, she moves in with him in New York. There, their temporary residency turns into a permanent one because he is a student studying overseas. We watch her go around and acclimate to this strange land. They give their son the nickname Gogol and name him Nikhil in honour of Ashoke’s favourite author. We observe as Gogol develops his American roots, which he doesn’t fully understand until he travels to India in his 20s. A family loss hastens Ashima’s decision about where she will reside once she has a choice. Along with his acceptance of his name and his background.
4. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Director- Danny Boyle
Location in India- Mumbai
Salim and Jamal were born and reared in Mumbai’s slums. They both made it through being orphaned as children, along with their young buddy Latika. Jamal enters the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire competition in India. In his initial appearance, he succeeds in raising 10 million rupees. However, the police then detain him because they are curious. As to how a’slumdog,’ as youngsters reared in slums are known, could possibly know all of those answers without using any unfair means. All he can say is that being asked questions for which he already knows the answers is just fate. After explaining how specific occurrences in his life taught him the answers.
5. Octopussy (1983)
Director- John Glen
Location in India- Udaipur
James Bond is required to look into the murder of an agent who was holding a precious Fabergé egg when he was killed. The trail ends with the enigmatic Octopussy, whose travelling circus is staffed by a group of gorgeous, fit women. Bond and Octopussy are deeply in love. However, 007 soon learns that the sophisticated Kamal Khan is conspiring with a crazy Russian General to detonate an atomic weapon on a U.S. Air Force base. The thrilling chase through India’s streets, the lethal altercation on top of a speeding train. Along with the breath-taking knife duel in mid-air on an aeroplane wing will all occur as Bond tries to foil the nightmare conspiracy.
6. Extraction (2020)
Director- Sam Hargrave
Location in India- Ahemdabad
A young boy is used as a pawn in a conflict between prominent drug lords in the criminal underworld of weapons dealers and traffickers. His rescue requires the unmatched expertise of a mercenary named Tyler Rake, but Rake is a shattered man with little to lose and harbours a death wish that makes an already dangerous assignment nearly impossible. He is trapped by kidnappers within one of the world’s most impenetrable cities.
7. Tenet (2020)
Director- Christopher Nolan
Location in India- Mumbai
An anonymous CIA agent, referred to as the Protagonist, is chosen to join the ranks of Tenet, a covert government organisation entrusted with preserving the survival of the human race after suffering a near-death experience. The Protagonist joins up with his cryptic new companion, Neil, in order to track down the evil Russian oligarch Sator after being tasked with coping with a terrifying, cutting-edge technology and an impending onslaught from the future. But as we are in a race against time and the invisible threat’s strangling grip is growing increasingly tight, our planet’s survival is in jeopardy.
8. Life Of Pi (2012)
Director- Ang Lee
Locations in India- Puducherry and Kerala
Santosh and Gita Patel, together with their sixteen-year-old son Pi, his older brother Ravi, and a few priceless animals, board a Japanese freighter destined for Canada in pursuit of a better future in a new nation. Then, as a terrifying storm pummels the ship, tragedy strikes, and Pi finds himself unexpectedly being carried away by the raging sea in an open lifeboat. Pi is not, nonetheless, alone. The young survivor, whose life is on the line, is forced to travel on a boat with a Bengal tiger, a spotted hyena, a wounded zebra, a female orangutan, and a wounded zebra.
9. The Darjeeling Unlimited (2007)
Director- Wes Anderson
Location in India- Jodhpur
Three brothers who are all dealing with despair meet up on a train ride across India a year after their father died accidentally. Francis, the oldest, has put it together. The brothers quarrel, mope around, hate one another, and fight. The youngest, Jack, is drawn to one of the train staff members despite being estranged from his fiancée. Peter buys a poisonous snake after leaving his pregnant wife at home. After a few days, Francis reveals their unexpected and unsettling final location. Can the brothers resolve their issues in a different environment? The reconciliation includes a burial, a meditation, a mountaintop ceremony, and the Bengal Lancer. Most of the scenes of this film were shot in India.
10. Jobs (2013)
Director- Joshua Michael Stern
Locations in India- Vrindavan and Delhi
With the development of the Apple 1 in 1976, college dropout Steve Jobs and his friend, tech whiz child Steve Wozniak, launch a revolution in home computing. The invention, which Jobs’ parents built in their garage, along with the subsequent establishment of Apple Inc., transformed the world forever. Even though he is regarded as a visionary, Jobs had a difficult time running Apple, which eventually led to his termination from the organisation he helped build.
11. A Passage To India (1984)
Director- David Lean
Locations in India- Bihar, Bangalore and Jammu & Kashmir
Young Englishwoman Adela Quested visits her fiancé, a British magistrate stationed in a tiny village, in India in the late 1920s. His mother Mrs. Moore is her travelling companion. The British community’s attitude that interactions with the natives are best experienced from a distance frustrates those who wish to learn more about the country and get to know regular Indians. When they reach their destination, a friend introduces them to a Muslim doctor who Mrs. Moore had briefly encountered during her visit to a mosque. He leads them on a trip to the local caverns, but what transpires there could endanger the goodwill between the British and Indian communities.
