More about this beautiful film very soon, but for now, here are some pics from the red carpet premiere last night on Amsterdam Avenue, complete with Connecticut-based Indian elephant, Minnie.
Minnie and her handlers:
Minnie and the IAAC‘s President Aroon Shivdasani:
Rajnesh Domalpalli (director) and Mamata Bhukya (lead actor):
From another angle:
Minnie’s ride:
Aww, good to hear Minnie the lovely elephant seemingly took the whole thing so well. The 4th picture from the top down is fantastic 😀
Wonderful! I really thought the movie deserved wider appreciation than the Indie circuit. Looking forward to your review!
Hi Lisa,
Yeah, I wondered the same thing when I first heard about it. They’re such massive, regal animals and it makes me sad to see them in restricted spaces (there’s a famous Buddhist temple in Colombo and the poor elephant there was tied up on short, short metal chain in a courtyard and did nothing but sway from side to side all the time).
I’m surprised no one jumped up to complain about the exotification of India, though I did hear one person in the audience mention it mockingly.
To her credit, Minnie was amazingly unfazed by the traffic, in spite of being right on top of it. And in the midst of it all, NYC’s finest did one of those post-9/11 20-car sirens blaring, lights blazing shows of force right up the avenue past her, and she didn’t blink twice at it.
I want to chime in for animal rights and say, why in living hell did they have to subject that poor elephant to the traffic, noise and pollution of New York City? To promote a MOVIE?
Ick.
Good morning Divine Ms. M,
The movie is primarily about a young girl who is a Kuchipudi dancer in rural AP, but there is an elephant in three scenes in the movie.
You can’t see it in my pics (aside from the side view of the elephant and her “Vanaja” blanket), but there were also dancers on the red carpet for a time. (If you scroll up to that photo, look for the 2 feet and turquoise clothes under Minnie’s tummy.) 🙂
Is the movie about an elephant or was the friendly pachyderm there for no other reason than the fact that it is Indian? If the latter… then… we’ll I am speechless.