'People can use some comedy'

In his 20 years as producer, Ashok Amritraj has been associated with many genres, from romantic dramas (Moonlight Mile with Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon) to erotic thrillers (Original Sin with Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie).

Comedy was one of the few categories missing from the 80 movies Amritraj has under his belt. "I was always looking to do comedies," says the Chennai-born former tennis player. "But I could never find a good script."

A few months ago, Queen Latifah -- more famous now for her short role in Chicago as a prison warden than as talk show host -- approached the producer with a story idea that caught his fancy.

Bringing Down The House, as Amritraj's first comedy is called, is about a white lawyer (Steve Martin) who is separated from his wife and looks for comfort in cyber chat rooms. He falls for a sexy Ivy League-educated barrister, who turns out to be a black prison escapee (Queen Latifah) who wants him to clear her name. Chaos follows as the uptight lawyer is simultaneously endeared and outraged by the brassy ghetto woman.

"What I particularly connected with in our story is the idea that we are sometimes given gifts by the unlikeliest of people in the unlikeliest of forms," said Amritraj. "In this case, Queen Latifah gives Steve's character the permission to be, publicly, the person he rarely lets the world see. The bottom line is, they are just magical together."

The movie, which was shot in less than 13 weeks, opens in the US this Friday. Amritraj expects it to make at least $15 million in the first weekend, "otherwise I will be quite concerned."

As CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment, Amritraj has made a major shift from low and medium budget films to producing big league movies in the range of $40 million to $90 million. "It was a gradual learning process," says Amritraj, whose name was initially associated with a number of B-grade action movies that made more money through international marketing than domestic success. "Even though tennis opened doors for me, at the end of the day, it boiled down to how good I was as producer.

"As a minority, I must say you need even more determination and perseverance than others," he asserts, "because you are fighting against the best of the best. One has to prepare oneself for a lot of rejection."

About two decades later, it is Amritraj who rejects scripts. He says his search for a broad comedy script was consistently disappointing until he hired the relatively unknown Jason Filardi to transform Latifah's idea.

Producing a comedy has very little in common with producing an action movie, explains Amritraj. "Making an action movie is very painstaking -- there are a lot of stuntmen [required], potential accidents [to be taken into consideration] and so on. It is more physical work," he says. "But, with comedy, the only difficult thing is finding the right script. After that, it is almost like a party."

The movie is slated for release at a time when the economic slump, impending war and terrorism-related anxiety have people looking forward to comedies, say Hollywood pundits. Two romantic comedies -- Maid In Manhattan and Two Weeks Notice -- that received bad to average reviews have already done extremely well at the box-office.

"It is definitely good timing if you look at the climate of the country," says Amritraj. "There is so much serious stuff going on. People can use some comedy."