Hey, Rockets-R-Us, you go to Northwestern? Congrats on the role in the movie man. Here's hoping that this is the beginning of your fame in the movies!
Well first off, there's apparently 2 rockets-r-us's here ont he BBS, so u gotta be specific. That other guy ripped his name off'a mine, I was the original. I'm "Rockets R' Us" and he's "Rockets-R-Us" Anyways, nah I don't go to Northwestern, I'm a senior @ Conant High School in Hoffman Estates/Schaumburg. Plannin on goin to U of I or UIC though. Where are you from?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/features/2082659 For local 'Yaar' filmmakers, all's well that ends By BRUCE WESTBROOK Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Their ethnic comedy may not outgross My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but for the Houstonians behind Where's the Party Yaar?, the triumph was simply getting it made. "I'm just glad we finished it," director Benny Mathews said of the lively, low-budget Indian-American film, opening today in Houston and six other cities. Yaar, the Indian equivalent of "dude," is the story of an eager but awkward immigrant who has trouble fitting into the Houston scene. The local Indian-American kids, who have absorbed Western culture, consider Hari (Sunil Malhotra) a geek. With his dorky ties, white sneakers, oily hair and lame slang, he's a guy they'd rather not see at their big dance parties. But Hari is earnest and good-hearted, so perhaps there's hope for him yet. Sunil Thakkar, who wrote the film with Mathews, Soham Mehta and Rikesh Patel, can relate: Yaar is essentially his story. When Thakkar moved to Houston from his native Bombay in 1986, he was just like Hari -- an FOB, or "fresh off the boat" immigrant, who didn't use deodorant and was shunned socially. "Like Hari, I was a guy people didn't want," said Thakkar, who performs in the film as one of Hari's equally clueless friends. "I wanted to fit in and didn't." After earning his MBA from Rice University, Thakkar began working for Shell, then started staging his own dance parties as money-making events. But he wasn't the kind of guy he wanted to attend. Sunil Malhotra plays the main character, Hari, an earnest, good-hearted guy everyone thinks is a geek. "If I came to my own party, I wouldn't let me in," said Thakkar. "Deep down, I'm the king of FOBs. I stuttered when I was young and wasn't in the cool crowd. You've got to have a cool crowd to keep people coming to parties. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense from a business standpoint." Since 1993, Thakkar also has hosted the weekly radio show Music Masala, named after his small music company. Airing 1-6 p.m. Saturdays on KTEK (1110 AM), it offers "cool music for Indians," with the kind of energized dance tunes played at his parties. (More information on the radio show and parties is available at www.musicmasala.com.) Two years ago, Thakkar got the bug to turn Houston's South Asian party scene and his own immigrant experience into a movie. Encouraged by Farid Virani, a friend and jeweler who agreed to bankroll most of the movie, Thakkar quit his day job two years ago. He and wife Sandhya Thakkar joined Virani to executive produce and invest in the film. Mathews, another friend, had moved to Los Angeles to direct music videos for rap acts such as Bone Thugs N Harmony and Scarface. He returned home for his feature debut, directing Yaar's hectic four-week shoot. Locations ranged from the University of Houston campus to Bush Intercontinental Airport to homes in Sugar Land. If Thakkar is akin to Hari, then Mathews is more like the movie's Mo (Kal Penn), Hari's cousin and son of a prosperous doctor. A UH student, Mo has been absorbed by American culture and is hip to styles and trends. Though born in India, Mathews grew up in Houston, graduating from Willowridge High. Though Mo refutes stereotypes, Hari plays to them. The filmmakers admit they deliberately used a comic stereotype -- the equivalent of Steve Martin's "wild and crazy guy" -- to get people into theaters. Melissa Phillip / Chronicle Sunil Thakkar is the co-creator of the semi-autobiographical look at Indian immigrants, Where's the Party Yaar? "But we also tried to open their eyes to what's really there -- to the humanity and the truth," Mathews said. "Hari is just an innocent guy trying to fit in. He's funny, but we also show compassion for him." Yaar wound up costing about $500,000 to shoot and another $180,000 for post-production. When it was finished in January, Thakkar started showing it at film festivals and shopping it to studios. Luckily, other movies about Indian immigrants had also begun popping up. One was 2001's American Desi, in which Penn and Malhotra also starred. Though Thakkar calls it "a landmark film," the movie made little money. But when crowds flocked to this year's Bend It Like Beckham, a tale of Indian immigrants in Britain, Yaar drew interest from Miramax and Fox Searchlight. "At first, nobody returned my calls," Thakkar said. "After Beckham, it was, `Let's look at your movie.' The timing was right." Yet the studios still failed to make a satisfactory offer, so Thakkar decided to distribute the film himself. So far he's struck 15 prints, booking Yaar into art houses in Houston (the Angelika), New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and Chicago for today's opening. On Sept. 12, Yaar will widen to two more Houston theaters, and in early October it will spread to Dallas, Austin, Boston, Atlanta and other cities. "We are learning the game as we go along," Thakkar said. "But I believe in my marketing over Fox Searchlight's. We're opening small and hoping for good word-of-mouth (support) so we can expand. We're also hosting parties in different cities to hype the movie. "With the recent exposure of Indian films, a lot of people are curious. In New York they are crazy about this movie, which we've been promoting via e-mail. We have very little money, so we're relying on grass-roots, 'guerrilla' marketing." Thakkar credits the AMC chain as "the first company that held my hand. They came through, big-time." On Sept. 12, Yaar will expand to AMC's Studio 30 and First Colony 24 theaters. Though his core audience is the many thousands of Indian-Americans, Thakkar also hopes his film will have a wider appeal. "Indians will get some of the jokes more, but we can all relate," he said. "We are all FOBs at one stage of our lives." Though they poked fun at Hari, Thakkar and Mathews also tried to humanize Indian immigrants by showing more dimensions. "In America, we are not just doctors, cab drivers or convenience store owners," Thakkar said. "We are also party people. "It's a very quirky culture, which people in America will slowly start to recognize. In India, the parties are wild. Also, in India, more movies are made than in Hollywood, and they are high-energy musicals." Drawing from the colorful, boisterous style of such "Bollywood" productions, Thakkar used one of his own Houston parties as backdrop for his film. "Everybody throws their hands in the air and goes crazy," he said of his parties. "People come for one thing: to go wild to the music and celebrate." Most cast members were nonprofessional actors from Houston. Penn, who came in from L.A., had a few major credits, such as Van Wilder and Malibu's Most Wanted. "This film is completely independent, down and dirty, and as cheap as possible," Thakkar said. "But we did not compromise on the look or the music," which includes techno dance songs by popular group Cornershop. After "begging and pleading," Thakkar got the band to accept payment of $1,000 per song rather than a higher fee suggested by their label. "But if the film grosses more than $3 million, it goes up to $10,000 per track," he said. Yet he tries not to focus on the money. "For me, if the film succeeds financially, great, but if it just makes people smile, then I'm looking for that, too." Yaar ends with a dedication to the "fine folks of Houston." For Thakkar, that is heartfelt. "This country opened the doors of heaven for me," he said. "It is the greatest in the world, and Houston is the perfect home for me. Here, if you strive for what you want, you can get it. If not for Houston, I wouldn't have gotten a chance to be on the radio and to express my life. "We are Indian-Americans, yes, but we now live here. This is our life, and we are so blessed. India is the motherland, but Houston is my home."
YES!!! its finally out two years after we made it, and actually it was pretty good, i expected a crappy looking worse sounding movie but it was proffesional and entertaining. My performance as deepu was ok if it wasnt for the fact that my voice hadnt changed and that i was like a foot shorter (The fact that my character is a freak who cant find his identity makes me look rather stupid also, but hey i was in it) Go, check it out at the angelika film center go to wtpy for more info
What's up with all of the Indian themed movies coming out the past year or so? It seems to be some sort of trend. I wonder why Hollywood is on it now?
Thanks for the article.....but what other Indian themed movies have come out recently??? And MRGOUPLE...how did you get to be in this movie?!? I will see it at AMC 24 at First Colony.
Well, my cousins into acting and he came down to htwon to audition and he said theres a part bout a 10yr old kid, but that can prolly be tweaked, so i went along and long story short, i got it. I never did movies b4 but i'd done lots of stuff in theatre arts
sorry to bump a year and half post, but i watched this the other day, cause they had it at Hollywood Video but the title is altered to "Dude, Where's the Party" and I thought it was great. I hope it gets popular because Kal Penn is in it and he is gotten a career boost with Harold and Kumar. If yall liked this, you can watch the "filipino" version (cause im flip ) of pretty much kinda of the same story called "The Debut", stars Rufio (Dante Basco) from Hook
I know one of the girls in the movie. I use to go to school w/ her at UH. Her name is Tina and she's one you'd want to hit.
I think the movie title change is the lamest stunt ever. Obviously, when this thing got released to DVD, the producers wanted to make it more appealing to the masses, so they got rid of the "yaar" and changed it to "Dude where's the party" in order to trick people into thinking its some kind of spin off of "dude where's my car?" That's horse ****. Oh, and I saw the movie and it blew chunks. My sister's friend's mom has a big role in it too (the main mom in the flick)
I saw "Harold and Kumar..." and wasn't enamoured. I know it's not meant to be taken seriously, but it's just middle-class, suburban, undergrad, second-generation Asian American guy wish fulfillment on film.
Oh thanks MAN!!! . I didn't look at the dates so I read through the first page of this thread thinking it was modern day news. Five more useless minutes added on to an already useless life.
same here...i read through the entire first page thinking it was just posted...the whole time i swore i saw it at hollywood video a few weeks ago
um ok, this hasnt happen the first time, seen it plenty of times before (dating a p*rn star thread comes to mind).... sorry to waste your previous 5 mins in which couldve been saved for you to SEE the date on the first post.... all you missed was another "Yao is going to the Lakers thread" /napoleon "gosh"
conant? small world....we played you guys in the state basketball playoffs and you guys beat us a few weeks ago.... we always get you in football though
