Shot In Bombay

Director: Liz Mermin
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Vivek Oberoi, Apoorva Lakhia
Format: HDCam   Runtime: 101 minutes
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screening in: Spotlight Premieres

Screening Times

11:00 AM, Saturday March 8th - Austin Convention Ctr
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5:00 PM, Tuesday March 11th - Alamo Lamar 2
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11:00 AM, Friday March 14th - Paramount
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everything subject to change

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Synopsis:
Shot In Bombay is a fast-paced, often surreal documentary that goes beyond the tinselly glamour of Bollywood to reveal the industry's darker dramas. In December 2006, superstar Sanjay Dutt was convicted of possessing firearms linked to India's 9/11 Ð the day in 1993 when Mumbai suffered 13 bomb-blasts in two hours. Full of sudden reversals, the documentary follows Dutt as he makes his last film before being sentenced: 'Shootout In Lokhandwala'. He plays a real-life police officer, A. A. Khan, who became a hero by leading a fatal 'encounter' with gangsters in which 3000 rounds of ammunition were fired. Shot in Bombay subtly underlines the ironies of this situation, with as colourful a cast as any Bollywood movie. There's the director of 'Shootout', Apoorvia Lakhia; with dozens of tattoos and two flops to his credit, he is embarking on an action movie with a big star cast and many egos to stroke. Having waited four months for Dutt to become free, Lakhia has 3 weeks to finish shooting his movie - and he needs a hit. There's A. A. Khan, 'Bombay's Dirty Harry', who narrates the city's history of crime and punishment. Minor characters, from co-stars to stunt-men, fill out the cast. Along the way it touches on a wider question facing Mumbai's citizens: what rights do suspected criminals have, and does the justice system favour the rich? Shot in Bombay is an unusual portrait of a complicated metropolis where fact and fiction are inextricably entwined.

Director's Bio:
LIZ MERMIN is a London-based director from New York specializing in off-beat social issue documentaries. SHOT IN BOMBAY is her fourth feature doc. Her previous films - OFFICE TIGERS (young Indian professionals learning the rules of corporate culture from American bosses), THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL (a bizarre American development initiative), and ON HOSTILE GROUND (abortion providers in dangerous times) - have screened in theatres and at major festivals. She has also made a variety of programs for public, cable, and network TV. Before turning to production she studied literature at Harvard, African cinema in Senegal, and anthropology & ethnographic film at NYU, and wrote on film for film/arts magazine & journals. A 2006 Renew Media Fellow, and a regional dilettante, she currently has projects in development on three continents.