Chinese government has denied Chandni Chowk To China release

John Landis director of Beverly Hills Cop 3, Blues Brothers, Coming To America and Trading Places, Rob Cohen of Dragonheart, The Fast & Furious and Bruce Lee Story and McG who has just finished Terminator 4, were some of the topnotch Hollywood directors who turned up for the Los Angeles premiere of Chandni Chowk To China on Wednesday night at the posh Steve J.Ross theatre right inside the Warner Brother premises.

Minutes before he jetted off with his cast to New York for the next premiere director Nikhil Advani said, "We couldn’t stay for the LA premiere for more than 35 minutes because we had to leave for the NY premiere.

But I could see the audience which included directors John Landis, Rob Cohen and McG plus top brass from Warner Brothers were laughing at the right places and for the right reason and in an emotional scene they all went silent."

It’s going to be a glamorous whirligig for our own Deepika Padukone and Akshay Kumar.

Says Nikhil, "We didn’t know what the exact turn-out at the LA premiere was going to be. The RSVPs kept coming till the last hour.

Over here the biggest of stars let you know if they aren’t coming. (Quite unlike the Mumbai premieres). It’s Warner Brothers’ prestigious Bollywood product and they’re releasing it on a par with any Hollywood film with 50 prints in the US."

After the LA premiere the cast and director will attend the New York premiere on 8 January followed by the Toronto premiere on 9 Jan.

"We then proceed to London on the 10th. On the 12th is the London premiere at the Empire theater at Leicester Square."

After the film’s Indian release Nikhil goes for the Hong Kong and Dubai premieres of his film.

However the much- expected premiere of Chandni Chowk To China in the Chinese Republic has not materialized.

Apparently the Chinese government has denied the film the permission for release.

Says Nikhil, "What can I say? China only allows twenty international filns to be released every year. …anyway the film will be out on pirated DVDs in China so the people there will see how much we’ve done to honour the country."

Interestingly Nikhil Advani saw his own film for the first time on Tuesday. "I’ve to say at 2 hours 32 minutes it’s much shorter than my last film Salaam-e-Ishq. In fact after I saw the film I edited out three minutes of playing time."

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