Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
Short description
Set in sixteenth-century India, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love follows Maya and Tara, two girls raised alongside each other in a royal palace. One is a servant, the other a princess, yet they grow up sharing tastes, habits and pastimes. As women, their bond survives Tara's marriage to Raj Singh, the heir to the throne, but the arrangement falters when Raj turns his attention toward Maya. What begins as rivalry over a man becomes a contest between two women whose standing could hardly be more different: Tara holds rank and power, while Maya has beauty and a gift for seduction.
Mira Nair directed and co-wrote the film with Helena Kriel, producing with Lydia Dean Pilcher. It sits between Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding in the run of features Nair has directed. Indira Varma and Sarita Choudhury play Maya and Tara; Ramon Tikaram appears as the sculptor Jai Kumar, Naveen Andrews as Raj Singh, and Rekha as Rasa Devi, who instructs Maya in the arts of love. The film was made for about 3 million dollars and took roughly 4 million worldwide, a modest return.
Audience response has been middling: on IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.7 out of 10 from 188 votes. A critics' rating of 4.9 out of 10 from 17 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- To film in India, they had to come up with a fake title for the movie, “Tara and Maya.” If the Indian authorities had known what the film was about, filming would have been immediately banned.
- Due to its erotic content, the film was banned from screening in India and Pakistan.
- During visits to the set in India by government officials, the filmmakers and actors had to improvise scenes on the fly to stall until the visitors left, and to avoid irritating them with explicit content.
- When Indian authorities learned the title and content of the future film during production, the producers and director repeatedly had to bribe officials, who began to appear regularly on set. Otherwise, the filmmakers faced criminal prosecution.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
