‘I am waiting to watch Sultan’

‘I am waiting to watch Sultan’


IIT Madras was recently the venue for a conglomeration of great minds from the world of Indian cinema, who had converged at the venue for a screenwriting workshop under the aegis of Kamal Haasan. One of the cinematic heavyweights —Shekhar Kapur, director of the Oscar-winning Elizabeth, was also present on the occasion. Shekhar, who was once close to Rajinikanth says, “Rajini and I have had quite a few inspiring conversations when he used to come to Mumbai for his yesteryear films like Hum. But we have lost touch for some time now. Nevertheless, I am keenly looking forward to see his daughter Soundarya’s animated film Sultan - The warrior.”

He struck an instant chord with Chennai’s unending water woes when he reveals, “I am currently working on a film called Paani, which is set in a not so distant future and is centered on the battles which will be fought for drinking water.”
The multi-faceted director is hooked onto blogging and loves to track the comments his readers post on his blog. An advocate of free propagation of ideas, Shekhar says, “I am thinking about putting up my forthcoming scripts online for free download by netizens across the world. My plans are to challenge them to make a better film with those ideas.”
Shekher is also the doting father of an eight year-old and he explains, “My daughter was born at a very late stage in my life and I have fears of not being around when she’s 20. So I have taken it up as a personal assignment to put my life and my thoughts on my blog so that she could get to know who her father really was. I know for sure that most of us have an impression that our parents were perpetually old people. But the fact is we never saw them in their youth.” The constant traveler adds, “Now home for me is somewhere on an aeroplane and it’s ironic because I fantasised of traveling all over the world as a child.”
So what about his other interests? Unknown to many, Shekhar is actually working on his very first installation art that will be exhibited at the Swarovski museum in Austria. The work is based on his short film Passage. The director also has two Hollywood films in his kitty, which he was not able to speak on due to contractual agreements.
When asked about the sequel to his yesteryear hit Mr India, which is a concept in the making, Shekhar says, “I have scripted it but I am not directing or producing it. I don’t think that anyone else can play Mogambo as well as Amrish Puri did.”