This Gujarati's Hollywood dreams come true

Rarely does one hear of an American film releasing in India prior to its release in the US. But Mitesh Kumar Patel, who belongs to Vadodara, is changing the pattern of things in Hollywood in a small way. His very first Hollywood film — The Man in the Maze — is ready for release in September this year. Patel, who now resides in the US, is currently in Vadodara for the promotion of his film. He spoke to DNA about his film which is a horror mystery and he plans to show it first in India.

“It’s not important where I release it first, what matters is that every person watching it likes it. The Man in the Maze has been screened at multiple film festivals across the US and Canada where the response has been overwhelming and the film has bagged a few awards,” says the debutant director who was born and brought up in Gujarat. 

Liana Werner Gray, who is a former Miss Australia Earth, is the female lead in the film. Bollywood music composer duo Siddhartth-Suhas has given the background score.  While the Indian film industry is obsessed with Hollywood, not many Indians have made a mark on an international platform. Why is that? “It may be right to some extent because you can recall only a few names like M Night Shyamalan or Aishwarya Rai who are known out there. But let me tell you it is not easy to enter Hollywood. It took me almost two years to get this project together and I consider myself lucky.”

So why did he choose Hollywood over Bollywood? “It is not that I chose it. I stay in the US which made it easy for me to work there. I have grown up watching Hindi films and I am making one titled Aaryamaan which is in the pre-production stage,” says Patel. 

He adds that his genre is sci-fi and that's what he likes to experiment with.  He wants to introduce it in Bollywood because there has been very little work on this subject in India. His future projects also include another sci-fi film, Cosmic-Man, that will release early next year. 0Patel's parents are both doctors. He graduated from Kala Kendra College of Fine Arts, VV Nagar, in 1997 and then attended MS University for Masters in Applied Arts. He plans to travel to other cities across the country as well to promote his film.