Click to play videoToronto: A day before Mani Ratnam's Guru releases worldwide, it premiered at Toronto's Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre Centre on Thursday night.
Guru is the first Hindi film to be screened at this venue, which also hosts the annual Toronto International Film festival.
The overseas distributors of the film in Canada, Roger Nair Productions are reportedly spending close to $ 1,00,000 for the premiere.
"It is the launch of Bollywood films into mainstream Canada. We will have Indians because they know Mani Ratnam better, but then it's time to educate everybody in Canada about Bollywood films,” says Nair.
Guru's premiere, a first of its kind for Bollywood, has managed to create quite a stir in Toronto and it's distributors are hopeful that the film will generate a revenue of almost Rs 8 crore from the Canadian market.
To that end, given Toronto's large Indian population, an interest in Bollywood is natural, and the city's mayor David Miller is backing it to the hilt.
"We are absolutely delighted, Toronto is absolutely delighted to host this premiere. We wanted to see a Bollywood premiere in Toronto. I have seen a lot of Bollywood films, but this will be my first premiere,” Miller says.
It sure will be a first for a lot of people including the Indian Diaspora in Canada. If Guru finds success like its protagonist, it could well be a trendsetter forever an expanding Bollywood market.
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