Julia Roberts lands in India to film “Eat, Pray, Love”
After New York and Italy, Oscar winner Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman) reportedly landed Thursday in Delhi (India) with cast and crew to shoot the next leg of “Eat, Pray, Love”.
Hindus, although welcoming Roberts and others accompanying her to India, are concerned about how their traditions will be depicted in the film.
Roberts’ twins Hazel and Phinnaeus are accompanying her, and the troupe, which checked into a five star hotel on Thursday evening, will stay till the first week of October, reports suggest.
Shooting, though being kept secret, will reportedly start soon at an ashram near Gurgaon on the Delhi-Jaipur National Highway 8 very close to Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, while some scenes will be filmed at Pataudi Palace, about 60 kilometers from Delhi.
Some of the Indian crew of “Slumdog Millionaire” (Danny Boyle) will also be helping in the India part of the production.
People of India will be anxious to see how perfectly Roberts does her job of cleaning ashram floors as a part of her devotional duty, trying to recite 182-verse Sanskrit chant, and going through grueling hours of meditation while being feasted on by mosquitoes.
Oscar nominated Richard Jenkins (The Visitor) and Oscar nominated Viola Davis (Doubt) will also reportedly participate in India shooting. Rest of the cast includes Oscar winner Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men), Paris Film Festival award winner Billy Crudup (Almost Famous), Golden Globe winner James Franco (Pineapple Express), Luca Argentero (Lezioni di cioccolato), etc.
Based on Pushcart Prize winner Elizabeth Gilbert’s spirituality/travel memoir “Eat, Pray, Love”, directed by Emmy nominated Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck) and produced by Columbia Pictures, Brad Pitt’s (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) Plan B Entertainment and Roberts’ Red Om Films, it is aimed at a release in 2011.
Roberts will reportedly not shoot in the original ashram where Gilbert stayed for about four months few years back in India, trying to find her spirituality.
Although Gilbert did not disclose the name of the guru or the ashram where she stayed in her book, but it is widely guessed that she stayed at Gurudev Siddha Peeth at Ganeshpuri (Thane district) in Maharashtra and her guru was Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, a Siddha guru and follower of Swami Muktananda (who passed away in 1982).
The goal of the Siddha Yoga path which this ashram follows is: “Self-realization — the unceasing experience of unity with God”. Swami Muktananda is quoted as: “Honor your Self, Worship your Self, Meditate on your self, God dwells within you as you.”
The Siddha Yoga teachings spring from Kashmir Shaivism, Vedanta, and from the experience of Siddha masters.
Category: Entertainment
