Twenty years ago, a country singer from the mountains of Dehradun walked into Tamworth, the capital of Australian country music, and walked out an overnight sensation. Australia called him The Indian Cowboy.
His story is now heading for the big screen.
At a reception hosted by His Excellency Philip Green OAM, Australian High Commissioner to India, the Premier of New South Wales, the Hon. Chris Minns MP, announced a new feature film inspired by the life of Bobby Cash alongside the Treasurer of New South Wales, the Hon. Daniel Mookhey MLC, Australia’s first Indian-origin state treasurer.
The film is directed by Anupam Sharma, the Sydney filmmaker behind Brett Lee starer UnIndian and widely credited as pioneering Australia’s modern film links with India, Award-winning NSW writer-director Victoria Wharfe McIntyre joins as screenwriter. Satish Sharma comes on board as Indian co-producer.
“I left the hills of Dehradun with a guitar and no plan,” says Bobby.
“Australia gave me a stage, and Tamworth gave me a name. Country music is about where you come from – mine just happens to be the Himalayas. If this film says anything, I hope it is that a song does not need a passport.”
It is less a biopic than a story of music, migration and identity, a man who carried a guitar out of the Himalayan foothills into regional Australia, and found that a voice crosses a border faster than anything else.
“Bobby’s is a story India gave Australia, and Australia gave back,” said Anupam.
Twenty years on, it still tells you everything about what these two countries can be to each other. To have the Premier and the Treasurer of New South Wales announce it on Indian soil, at the Australian High Commission, says the relationship has grown up. From the regional Himalayas to regional New South Wales – the Indian Cowboy rides again.”
Screenwriter Victoria Wharfe McIntyre says that she loves dichotomy, the man who feels foreign in his own land, disparate cultures rubbing together, country and city, and the contrasts that live within us all.
“Bobby Cash walks that line and through his music brings together worlds that could not be more different. Regional Himalayas to Regional NSW,” says Victoria.
“This is, quite literally, an incredible true Australian-Indian story and I’m so grateful to tell it alongside director Anupam Sharma.”
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