Melissa to shoot in Kolkata

Liev Schreiber is filming here. Tom Cruise flies down in December. Now, Kolkata is about to get its share of Hollywood magic as Melissa Joan Hart — who played the lead in the popular movie, “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” — will be shooting here next year. The movie, “Darci’s Walk of Shame”, is being produced jointly by Frank DeMartini and Purple Movie Town.
Frank, who has earlier produced films like “Crocodile”, “Journey to the End of the Night”, “Mozart and the Whale”, “Quicksand” and others, has already sent a letter of intent to Pritimoy Chakraborty of Purple Movie Town, saying portions of the film will be shot in the state-of-the- art studio on the southern fringes of the city.On board for art direction is the internationally acclaimed Nitish Roy. “Darci’s Walk of Shame” will be directed by Tibor Takács, who takes credit for the same TV series that shot Melissa to fame. The duo has also worked in quite a few other ventures. “I had a meeting with Frank on November 7 in Hollywood. Things fell into place soon after. The producer will be in Kolkata in January, when pre-production work is expected to start. Going by the emails exchanged, the film will be wrapped up in the first half of 2012. Melissa is working on a TV series and her dates are yet to be worked out. So far, I’m being told that the unit that comes down will comprise nine actors and 10 crew members,” says Pritimoy.
But that’s not all. Talks are on to include Indian actors and technicians. “The movie is a love triangle that unfolds at a beach resort. There’s room for Indian actors as there’s supposed to be a 40-member cast. I, for one, have Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Swastika Mukherjee, Tota Roychoudhury and Ananya Chatterjee in mind. I have already spoken to Param and Swastika, but the final call will be taken by the director,” says Pritimoy, adding that he is keen on casting quite a few actors from other industries in the country. “Actors from the Tamil film industry and Bollywood have shown interest. And why not? It’s a marriage between India and Hollywood and I am all for the globalization of the film industry. We are also keen on wooing French directors. The lavish set-up of the studios will only be justified if it’s put to good use.” The budget for “Darci’s Walk of Shame” is 10 crore.
Nitish is busy at the moment with the designs for the movie. “I am going through the 115-page script currently. I have worked with Frank earlier and we share a great rapport. He is like a regular American producer. If you have promised him something, you will have to deliver on time,” says the art director.
Pritimoy has already got the Indian distribution rights and Bollywood remake rights. “I will also ask for the rights to make the film in Bengali,” he signs off.