Bombay Talkie

Bombay Talkie is a 1970 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory.

Plot

Lucia Lane is a British author who is researching the Bollywood film industry. She falls in love and has an affair with Vikram, a famous Bollywood actor. The plot is complicated by the fact that Vikram is married, and his friend, Hari, is in love with Lucia.

Cast

Shashi Kapoor as Vikram
Jennifer Kendal as Lucia
Zia Mohyeddin as Hari
Aparna Sen as Mala
Utpal Dutt as Bose
Florence Ezekiel (Nadira) as Anjana Devi
Pinchoo Kapoor as Swamiji
Helen as Heroine in Gold
Usha Iyer as Cabaret Singer
Ruby Myers as Gopal Ma
Prayag Raj as Director
Jalal Agha as Young Man
Anwar Ali as Young Man
Mohan Nadkarni as Young Man
Sukhdev as Man at Bar
Amitabh Bachchan as Man Attending Funeral

Production

played a small role in the film. The actor confessed in an interview that Shashi Kapoor chided him for doing the role as he foresaw greater potential in Bachchan and that he left after one day of shoot before he was to say his line.

Additional information

The late Awtar Krishna Kaul, who later became an award-winning Hindi film director, moved to India after ending his 14-year stay in the U.S. to work as an assistant director on Bombay Talkie.

Legacy

The film's song "Typewriter, Tip, Tip" and the opening credits theme were used in the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited and on Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show.