From: psycho@makalu.Stanford.EDU (Mr. Knotty Sycho)
Subject: Bertolucci's Buddha progressing despite snags in Nepal
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, organized religion,
        religion, movies
Organization: Peace and Freedom Institute, Stanford University
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 01:34:53 GMT

	
 _U_P_I _N_e_w_s_F_e_a_t_u_r_e
	
	BHAKTAPUR, Nepal (UPI) -- Children play marbles on the streets of this
temple-studded medieval town as Italian craftsmen busily erect 18-foot
artificial walls to hide power pylons, satellite dishes and other
artifacts of the modern world.
	Inhabitated mainly by poor farmers, the town of 160,000 about 5 miles
east of Katmandu is being readied for the shooting of Italian director
Bernando Bertolucci's latest multi-million dollar extravaganza, ``Little
Buddha.''
	Sarada Malla watched as Indian and British craftsmen brought in to
erect false carved wooden windows for street scenes went about their
work in the town once described by the late French philosopher and
diplomat Andre Malraux as a ``living museum.''
	``A movie is being shot here,'' Sarada said when asked about the
activity.
	True, but not quite that simple.
	Sarada was unaware of the controversy generated by the movie's title,
depicting the founder of the Buddhist faith as ``little'' -- an issue
that has forced producers to consider changing the title to ``Little
Lama.''
	Besides the title, Buddhists also objected to a mention in the script
that the Buddha -- Prince Siddhartha -- was born in India. All residents
of the Hindu kingdom of Nepal -- Buddhist or not -- know the prince was
born in Lumbini, Nepal. He attained enlightenment, or Nirvana, across
the border in India, they concede.
	``The problems have been dealt with,'' a publicist for the film
assured. ``Not one minute of shooting was lost. A final decision has not
been taken yet on a new name.''
	Filming in Nepal has been going on for three weeks, and the
photographers also have captured scenes in monasteries in the adjoining
Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan. Besides Nepal, further sequences will be
shot in Seattle, Wash., before the movie's scheduled release in December
1993.
	Bertolucci and his crew, many of whom were involved in filming the
Oscar-winning ``The Last Emperor'' in China, are sequestered in a posh
hotel in Katmandu where chefs have been flown in from Rome to staff the
Italian kitchen.
	Night shooting is progressing outside King Birendra's summer palace,
located in a forest preserve on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital,
and location filming also is being done in the royal Chitwan Forests in
southwest Nepal -- home of the royal Bengal tiger and the one-horned
Asian rhino.
	The story, partially set in contemporary America, revolves around the
search for a rinpoche, or reincarte lama, in Nepal, Bhutan and the
United States, with flashbacks on the life of the Buddha.
	The movie's international cast is headed by Keanu Reeves and Chris
Issak, with 9-year-old newcomer Alex Weisendanger playing the principal
role. There are no significant roles for Nepalese in the film.
	Bertolucci, who also wrote the script, has scrupulously avoided the
foreign press and met locals only once prior to the beginning of
shooting.
	Controversy erupted earlier when a film crew moved into Communist-
dominated Bhaktapur, and began demolishing advertising billboards
without warning.
	``The incident could have taken a violent turn,'' said Narayan Man
Bijukche, president of the Maoist-oriented Nepal Peasants and Labor
Party, which maintains a firm grip on the town.
	``People are being corrupted. Money is being spent lavishly. That is
having a bad influence,'' complained the diminutive communist, seated in
his office beneath portraits of Chairman Mao and Kim Il Sung.
	Recipients of the filmworld's largesse, of course, disagree.
	Some businesses are being compensated about $1,200 daily for
disruptions caused by the filming -- astronomically high by Nepalese
standards -- prompting Bijkuche to ask for a public accounting of
expenditures to trap tax evaders.
	Party cadres have been instructed not to disrupt filming, to stay
aloof and not to take any money, Bijkuche said.
	Other local attitudes toward the film vary.
	``It is difficult to get to school, complained Sanjaya Bhakta, 12, a
seventh-grade schoolboy watching the 300 European and Indian craftsmen
working feverishly to cover up the few signs of modernity in Bhaktapur.
''We have to go on a long detour.``
	But Lisa Chogyal finds more benefits that drawbacks to the filming in
Nepal.
	``The movie will establish once and for all that the Buddha was born
in Nepal,'' she said. ``Nepal will be put in high profile. Such movies
have a high impact.''
	Nepal is expected to get reap $4 million of the film's $30 million
budget, but it is difficult to tell how much Nepal will benefit in terms
of tourism, the nation's top foreign exchange earner. Restaurants and
handicraft businesses, however, have received a boost from the presence
of so many foreigners.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nepal