{"id":42677,"date":"2017-12-09T12:47:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-09T20:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/?p=42677"},"modified":"2017-12-09T12:47:52","modified_gmt":"2017-12-09T20:47:52","slug":"desperate-to-make-another-film-in-india-shekhar-kapur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconeer.com\/current\/desperate-to-make-another-film-in-india-shekhar-kapur\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate to Make Another Film in India: Shekhar Kapur"},"content":{"rendered":"

File photo of Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur at the launch of a documentary on spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi in Mumbai, May 2016. (Mitesh Bhuvad\/PTI)<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

He started his career in Bollywood with \u201cMasoom\u201d and went on to become one of the most celebrated Indian filmmakers in the global circuit with \u201cElizabeth,\u201d but Shekhar Kapur<\/b> now wants to come back home and make a movie for the Indian film industry. Shekhar Kapur said Nov. 26, Sanjay Leela Bhansali did not make his upcoming film \u201cPadmavati\u201d with an intent to rake up a storm that has the country in its clutches today.<\/p>\n

\n

The 71-year-old director, however, believes he has lost his naivety as a filmmaker and people\u2019s expectations have only made things harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am desperate to make another film in India. I want to come home and make a film. When I made \u2018Masoom,\u2019 nobody was expecting anything from me. I wasn\u2019t expecting anything from myself. It is a terrible space for a filmmaker to be in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I can do it but I need to bring back the madness, which is my biggest problem. Creativity comes from madness. I was a CA when I came to make films… There was a certain madness. I am now trying hard to get that back,\u201d Shekhar said in a Masterclass at the ongoing International Film Festival of India.<\/p>\n

The director was supposed to make a comeback on Indian celluloid with his passion project \u201cPaani,\u201d which was to be produced by Yash Raj Films.<\/p>\n

Shekhar said he was heartbroken when the film got shelved as he had worked on the project for 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Paani\u2019 is a complex subject. I am good at selling films. I believe I can sell something so fast and Adi (Aditya Chopra) got caught,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated as I was passionate about the project.<\/p>\n

I had it with me for 15 years. I was working on it for so long. It was draining, it was art. It was not like if not this, I will make something else. When I saw Sushant (Singh Rajput) I felt he is the guy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Post \u201cPaani,\u201d the director had announced that he will be working with Kangana Ranaut on a film, in which the actor will play an 85-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

Talking about the status of the movie, Shekhar said, \u201cI am currently writing the script. It is a beautiful script.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Masterclass was moderated by Sushant, who also visited Entertainment Society of Goa\u2019s initiative, Bioscope Village Picture Time Digiplex, Nov. 26.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A notice regarding the suspension of the work for 15 minutes by the employees of a cinema hall is pasted on the poster of the movie ‘Padmavati’ at a cineplex in Kolkata, Nov. 28. The work was suspended to condemn the various protests and campaign against the movie in some parts of the country. (Swapan Mahapatra\/PTI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bhansali\u2019s Intent Not to Create Controversy<\/b><\/p>\n

Featuring Deepika Padukone in the title role, Bhansali\u2019s period drama is facing the wrath of various Rajput groups and political leaders, who have accused the director of \u201cdistorting historical facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing a Masterclass at the ongoing IFFI, Shekhar said, \u201cThe intention of the filmmaker (Bhansali) was not to create controversy. He is a great filmmaker. But he has never been a political filmmaker. He wanted to make a great film, a big film.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a faction divide in our society, which is very obvious, because India is a society (which) is in absolute and definite flux. All the lines which were drawn once are breaking. The politics has risen around the film but the film has nothing political in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The director, who received global acclaim for his films such as \u201cBandit Queen,\u201d and movies on the British monarch Queen Elizabeth I – \u201cElizabeth\u201d and \u201cElizabeth: The Golden Age,\u201d recalled his run-ins with controversy.<\/p>\n

Shekhar said when he was making the first Elizabeth<\/i> (featuring Cate Blanchett) movie, there were constant statements in the media, criticizing him for his portrayal of the queen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere comes an Indian director who has shown our virgin queen in bed with… I said, \u201cIt was 400 years ago, how did you know she was a virgin? Were you there every time?\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n

The director said such historical films are merely a \u201crepresentation\u201d or a \u201cmetaphor\u201d of history.<\/p>\n

He added, for him, the story of an individual is important if it tells a larger truth of the society today and that is why he chose to tell the story of infamous dacoit Phoolan Devi in \u201cBandit Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shekhar also revealed he had \u201cchanged\u201d the speech Queen Elizabeth was supposed to have delivered to inspire 5,000 of her troops at Tilbury in wake of an expected invasion by the Spanish Armada.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody said, \u2018How come you did that? That\u2019s not what she said.\u2019 (But) I said, she was sitting on a horse that was frisky. There was a storm coming in. How did 5,000 people listen to her without a loudspeaker? Who said those words? The person standing next to her could not hear what she was saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo she went back to her tent and said, \u2018This is what I said so write that draft now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He said knowledge of history in India is imparted in the form of a \u201cmoral tale,\u201d not a factual one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory is a constant interpretation of facts, I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s wrong… This is how history works. In India, till the British came, we believed in mythology, not in history…<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s our history? Gandhiji today is a saint for us.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not a man, he is a great man (Mahatma). The sense of history in India is a moral tale, it\u2019s not a factual tale…<\/p>\n

And who\u2019s saying that\u2019s wrong? That\u2019s probably right. Why else is history relevant? Either it has to have a relevance to our society today so we make it relevant by making it into a moral tale,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

File photo of Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur at the launch of a documentary on spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi Devi in Mumbai, May 2016. (Mitesh Bhuvad\/PTI) He started his career in Bollywood with \u201cMasoom\u201d and went on to become one of the most celebrated Indian filmmakers in the global circuit with \u201cElizabeth,\u201d but Shekhar Kapur now wants…<\/p>\n

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