Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who had stalled the work on his film Paani for about three years now, will reportedly begin the film again with Hollywood actors. According to Deccan Chronicle, Kapur’s dream project, which was shelved by Yash Raj Films, will feature two well-known Hollywood actors in the lead.
“It is true that I am no longer doing the film with Aditya Chopra. But that doesn’t mean I won’t be doing this film. I’ve lived with the project for many years now. When I first spoke about the impending water scarcity 12 years ago, everybody laughed at me. Today, famine is a looming reality,” he said, adding that he hopes to make the film before ‘water becomes more expensive than movie tickets’.
While he wouldn’t confirm if Sushant Singh Rajput would still be a part of the project, Kapur did regretfully say that the actor had lost significant time when the film was stalled. “We spent close to two years planning the project together. But it wasn’t meant to be. Not with Adi. I’ll now make Paani elsewhere,” he said.
Shekhar Kapur is finally returning to feature-film direction with Paani, eight years after his English feature film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).
The pre-production had begun in 2014, and he had roped in Sushant Singh Rajput as the lead in his futuristic take on Romeo & Juliet, set in a time when water scarcity in Mumbai would divide the city into two sharp halves of the haves and have-nots.
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Kapur had reportedly worked on the film for nine years, with Rajput dedicating two years of his time to the project, and in the process, rejecting two big projects – Ram Leela and Fitoor. While Rajput went on to work on his other films, including a biopic on MS Dhoni, Kapur focused on his TV-series based on Cleopatra.
Paani was supposed to have starred Anushka Sharma too, with music by AR Rahman.
More details regarding the new version of the film are yet to be revealed.
Pic: Box Office India