Hijack drama fails to lift Mira’s film off the ground

Poor Mira Nair.
The NRI director, whose latest film Amelia on American aviation pioneer and author Amelia Mary Earhart crashed at the Hollywood box office last week, apparently had a hijack drama on her hands during film making. But even the news and excitement of that episode, plus its glamorous star cast including Hillary Swank and Richard Gere, failed to make the film take-off.And, Amelia ��� who flew solo across the Atlantic Ocean and then vanished over the Pacific in 1937 when on a circumnavigational flight around the globe, continues to remain a fascination for her life, career and disappearance. But Mira Nair���s Amelia, which released on October 23, sadly failed to capture that excitement.
The director, who famously threatened to give up food during the shooting if the producers failed to get her one of Amelia���s actual Lockheed Elektras planes, told a foreign website, ���We located this Elektra in the south of France and the owner agreed to fly it to us across Africa. The Elektra runs on a gasoline you don���t get now and the plane had to keep landing for fuel. At one time they landed in a country ��� I won���t mention the name ��� and were surrounded by soldiers and taken hostage. The hijackers demanded $13,000 and we had to wire that down. The plane arrived 24 hours before the scenes had to be shot. Oh my God, it was a big saga.���