Costa Rica's Indian Star
Spanish conquistadors who first explored Costa Rica in the early-1500s aptly named the land "The Rich Coast." It is richly endowed with natural beauty, with lush sprawling rain forests, beautiful flora and fauna, cascading waterfalls and enchanting landscapes. It's also a place of misty mountains, rumbling volcanoes and pristine beaches. Thanks to its bio-diversity, eco-tourists are flocking to the land from all corners of the world attracted by its guided animal tours.
Most of the Costa Rican cinemas show Hollywood productions, but in recent years the number of movies produced in this Latin American country has increased in recent years. These range from horror and comedy movies, focused on entertainment value to art cinema. The country's art movies are often character studies, focusing on aesthetics and narrative and less on political issues. Costa Rica's top successful directors in the international art movies circuit include Paz Fábrega and Isthar Yasin Gutierrez.
Costa Rica's National Film Council started submitting entries for the Oscars since 2005. A new National Cinematheque building is being constructed in San Jose to support screenings and educational programs.
Perhaps, the first Indian who has achieved extraordinary success in Latin America's entertainment industry, Prabhakar Sharan wanted to become an actor in Bollywood, but landed in Costa Rica while wanting to migrate to the US back in the 2000s. Hailing from Bihar, India, Prabhakar Sharan's success story of achieving stardom will inspire many ambitious youth. He is a well-known star in Costa Rica, who gave the local film industry one of the biggest hits of 2017, "Enredados: la confusion" (Entangled: The Confusion). It is the first Latin American film made in typical Bollywood style, with songs and dance. It was picturized in the magnificent Costa Rica, besides Panama and Mumbai. Prabhakar played the lead role opposite Nancy Dobles, a popular Costa Rican television hostess. The movie, a box-office success, was distributed by Cinepolis in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and San Salvador. The movie was an attempt at creating a bond between Indian and Costs Rican communities.
Indian Roots
Born in Bihar's Motihari, Prabhakar Sharan initially went to Costa Rica for studies and to pursue an acting career. His parents Prabhunath Sharan and Subhadra Prasad are retired bankers from Motihari, Bihar. He was born in Patna and did his schooling from Bhurkunda and Ramnagar, which are now in Jharkhand. He went to Rohtak for his college education. He later moved to Costa Rica for further studies. After moving to the country, he gradually opened a chain of Indian clothing stores and restaurants in 2010. He studied at Costa Rica's Universidad Panamericana in 2000. During his tenure in the university, he became the president of the university.
Six years later, Prabhakar Sharan decided to bring Bollywood movies to theatres in Costa Rica. Subsequently, he started movie distribution, production and a chain of different businesses. He was the first to bring Bollywood movies commercially to Central America. While he lived in Costa Rica, he married a local woman. However, things didn't work for him professionally and personally. He moved back to India and even divorced his wife. In 2014, he decided to move back to Costa Rica once again and make a movie. Teresa Rodriguez Cerdas, a university owner, educationist and philanthropist, helped him to achieve his ambition of producing a movie.
Bringing Bollywood To Latin America
Indian actor, producer and screenwriter Prabhakar Sharan, who is the owner of the Pacific Investment Corporation (PIC), observed: "There is no other person or other production company that does the work I have been doing...I have worked with Panama and Costa Rica to bring Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry, to the region." Also, he signed an agreement with a major production company in India, with the backing of the Panama Film Commission of the Ministry of Commerce, to make the first Bollywood film in this country.
Prabhakar Sharan has plans to produce further movies in Panama with Bollywood producers on Costa Rica's indigenous communities, such as Ngäbe chieftain, Urracá, from the central province of Veraguas, who fought against the Spanish conquistadors. Latin America-based top Indian diplomats have praised Prabhakar for his efforts in promoting Indian films.
Currently, Prabhakar Sharan is further exploring the possibility of promoting Bollywood movies in Latin America. He visited India last year, and met with some movie producers and marketing companies to pursue his passion for quality movies, with the objective of entertaining movie buffs.
(Photo: Courtesy PIC)
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