Tere Bin Laden

Tere Bin Laden, तेरे बिन लादेन, تیرے بن لادن, Without You, Laden / Your Bin Laden, is a 2010 Bollywood comedy film produced by Walkwater Media and written and directed by Abhishek Sharma. The film stars Pakistani pop singer Ali Zafar in the lead role as an ambitious young reporter, who, in his desperation to migrate to the U.S., makes a fake Osama Bin Laden video using a look-alike, and sells it to TV channels. The film is a spoof on Osama Bin Laden, as well as a comic satire on America's war against terror and the realities of the post-9/11 world. The film was released worldwide on 16 July 2010.

Production

The film crew have attempted to get the locations, costume design and language as similar as possible to that in Pakistan; and have recreated the scene of Karachi to do this. Pradhuman Singh, who plays an Osama lookalike in the film, was given a Osama Bin Laden tape to watch, and later learned Arabic for eight months to get the diction.

Release

Tere Bin Laden was released on July 16, 2010, and grossed over 5 crore (US$1.11 million) in its opening weekend, internationally it grossed $150,000 from Britain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia, during the period, before its US release , which was delayed because the producers first wanted to gauge the film's response in other countries and also considering the sensitivity of the topic in the US. Pakistan's censor board renamed the title of the movie as Tere Bin and Middle East countries banned the release of the film.

Box office

In India, the film opened on 350 screens and collected 5 crore in its opening weekend. Friday morning shows opened with 20-25% in key areas like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and evening settled down to 35-40% with average occupancy cultivating first day gross box office of 1.11 crore, with glowing reviews ranging from 3-4 star ratings and strong word of mouth from audience Saturday showed an impressive jump of 80-85% and settle down to 1.75 crore, Sunday showed further jump of 66% compared to Saturday, and garnered further 2.15 crore cultivating to cumulative an astounding opening weekend collection of more than 5 crore gross. The film collected 8.25 crore (US$1.83 million) at the end of its theatrical run. It was declared an average grosser at the box office.

Cast

Ali Zafar as Ali Hassan

Pradhuman Singh as Noora / Osama Bin Laden

Sugandha Garg as Zoya

Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Gul

Piyush Mishra as Majeed

Rahul Singh as Qureishi

Seema Bhargav as Shabbo

Barry John as Ted

Chirag Vohra as Lateef

Chinmay Mandlekar as Usmaan

Rajendra Sethi as Jamal Bhai (Travel agent)

Harry Josh as a Security guard

Masood Akhtar as Rahim Yaar Khan

Plot

Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar) is a reporter with Danka TV, a downmarket local TV channel in Karachi. He is keen to migrate to the US for a better life. He gets a chance to fly to USA, but ruins it on board while taking his own audition. He recites the words "Hijack" and "Bomb" too many times; thus scaring his fellow on board passengers and flight crew members. As soon as he reaches the USA, he is deported immediately. Furthermore, because of this incident his Visa application is refused six times in seven years. While covering a local event for his channel, he comes across an Osama Bin Laden look-alike, Noora, and hits upon an idea to make a fake Osama tape. He manages to convince his assistant Gul about the merits of his plan. With help from his travel agent's assistant Zoya and a local radio jockey Quereshi, he is able to make the tape by tricking Noora into unknowingly posing as Bin Laden. He then sells the tape to the owner of his channel, hoping to raise money for a new false identity, a new passport and a renewed attempt at getting the elusive US Visa. However, the gravity of their action strikes them when the US Government takes the tape seriously and gets involved, as do the Pakistani intelligence agencies. A series of comic situations follow as they attempt to elude the authorities on their trail.