India should understand American way of making movies: Van Damme

Hollywood actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, known for his martial arts, Friday said that Indian filmmakers are making really good movies, but they need to understand the American thought process and movie-making technique to make a mark in their filmdom.

Van Damme, who launched Hollywood based Indian filmmaker Ashok Amritraj's autobiography "Advantage Hollywod" at the CII Big Picture Summit here Friday, talked at a session How India can make $100 million Films.

The 52-year-old said: "I am from Belgium. I am not an American, and I came to America with nothing, just like Ashok came with nothing. He came from a culture like India and I came from a culture like Belgium."

"I must say you guys have a very strong culture... I am a huge fan of Indian movies. But India should have sort of a school to understand the American way of making movies with some of the fantastic Indian actors. You don't have to learn anything, but you need to have a special way to understand American thinking, and how they make movies," he added.

He suggested that Amritraj can bring actors from different parts of the world to a school and make a movie that helps make inroads in Hollywood.

"You take those amazing talented people with Ashok and some American actors with some French and Asian actors to that school. He can present a movie in America, with American content in terms of script, no music, no this and that and then you move in with your culture in the US and they will start embracing you."

"And I think that is going to work. Because all I am saying that you have to go like a cowboy," he said.

Van Damme and Amritraj go a long way. The actor played the lead role in Amritraj's film "Double Impact", which turned out to be a turning point in their respective careers.