In this movie, a white architect travels to India to meet with a wealthy Indian businessman in the modern day. In a separate plot line which seemed to be set long ago, a sculptor is detailing some kind of temple, possibly underground, and has two slaves, male and female, who are made to stand still as models while he carves but develop affection for one another. The architect has dreams of this second plot line, and his journey to India may be in part motivated by these dreams.
The businessman and his wife have something of a strained relationship; he may be abusive toward her. The architect is startled because the businessman’s wife is the same person (same actress, I think she is supposed to be a reincarnation in-story) as the female model in the temple plot. In the course of surveying the site for the businessman’s project (a hotel, maybe?), the modern-day characters come across the site of the old temple. I don’t recall the resolution of the plot.
The movie was playing in the background during the ’00s when I visited a friend; I vaguely suspect it may have been a bootleg but can’t speculate on the original provenance. I do recall that it had at least one scene in which the female model was made to pose topless (that may even have been his motivation for having it; we were underage then). It was either in English or at least had English subtitles. Finally, it was definitely in colour and I would estimate it as being from the eighties based on what the characters were wearing and the general appearance, characteristic of a certain era’s film technology. That said, if it was an Indian production, it may have been more recent because both style and movie tech lags behind a little bit relative to the West.
“Divine Lovers”(1997)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301203/?ref_=adv_li_tt
‘…Plagued by strange dreams, a young architect in New York takes a hotel design job in India in the hopes of finding an explanation. When he arrives, he discovers that the wife of his employer is the same woman he has been seeing in his dreams…’
That was really fast! Sandnc’s first guess is correct. Here’s the Wikipedia summary; I didn’t remember it being quite so full of adult situations but I guess that’s to be expected given my age at the time.
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The story is about lovers from previous lives meeting in India. The story starts with a young village girl, Urvashi, being captured by some henchmen belonging to a local sculptor, Gregory. She is taken to a cave and forced to undress and pose nude with a man, Chandra, for some time to allow the sculptor to sculpt their figures on the rocks. The couple are required to present more poses and in the process fall in love. When Gregory leaves the caves, Urvashi and Chandra consummate their relationship. However, they are caught by the sculptor, who hits Chandra on the head with a hammer. A fire occurs in the cave and kills Chandra, while the sculptor takes the girl away.
In a modern time, the 1990s, in India, a local prince gets married to Reeta, a local girl (later revealed to be a reincarnation of Urvashi). Meanwhile, Jeff, an architect in the US, (later revealed to be the reincarnation of Chandra) has frequent nightmares about a sculptor killing him. He visits India on a trip to a recently-discovered archaeological site, the cave where the sculptor Gregory worked and where Chandra was killed. While in India, Jeff bonds with Reeta, the new princess, without knowing that she was his lover some centuries ago. The prince is a womaniser and has multiple affairs. He also mistreats the princess.
The princess and the architect fall in love. While visiting the archaeological site, the two realise that this is the same site where they consummated their love in their past lives. They once again consummate their new-found love for each other. During this act, the prince comes to the site. The prince is shown to be somewhat of a reincarnation of the sculptor. He hits the architect. The architect and the princess overpower the prince and he is killed, allowing the lovers to reunite. However, a minor earthquake results in the entrance to the caves being closed and the lovers to be trapped inside. As they accept their fate, the princess says, “A few moments of love is better than a lifetime without it”, to which the architect replies, “Chandra and Urvashi will never die”, implying that they are content with dying together, having each other at long last.
Glad I could help!
Solved!