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Deepa Mehta’s secret casting director revealed
05 months ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
The international filmmaker goes by her mother’s instincts when it comes to casting in her films
Aakanksha Naval-Shetye (DNA; January 11, 2013)
Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta ranks high on the wishlist of several actors. But when it comes to casting, the international filmmaker goes by her mother’s instinct.
A source reveals that actor Ronit Roy who will play the role of Ahmed Sinai in her upcoming film Midnight’s Children — based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie — was actually her mother’s choice, as she thought that he would suit the role perfectly. But this isn’t the first time that Deepa has gone ahead with her mother’s suggestion when it comes to casting. “Deepa’s mother is her secret casting director. Earlier too, Deepa agreed to her mother’s choice when it came to casting. In fact, it was her mother, who had suggested John Abraham as the lead for her 2005 film Water,” shares the source.
When contacted, Deepa says that she has full faith in her mother’s instincts. “I don’t cast because some actor is mainstream. It should be somebody who can resonate the character in the film. In fact, it was actually my mother who told me about Ronit Roy. She really likes him and she is totally right,” says Deepa.
Imran crossed my mind but never spoke to him-Deepa Mehta
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Interviews
The Canada-based filmmaker talks on why Imran Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor didn’t make the cut for her upcoming film based on Salman Rushdie’s novel
By Hiren Kotwani (MID-DAY; May 18, 2012)
With September just a few months away, Deepa Mehta is gearing up to debut her screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Deepa who had apparently offered the role of the protagonist to Imran Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor before she cast British actor, Satya Bhabha, speaks on the challenges of making this epic film.
Many Bollywood artistes like Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas, Rahul Bose, Shahana Goswami and Darsheel Safary feature in your film. Any particular reason? Indian cinema has fabulous actors. There are many actors in the film from the National School of Drama and for a few it was their debut performance. It would be really dumb not to take advantage of this and dip into the Bollywood pool of talent.
How much did it have to do with the fee? Reportedly, Imran Khan was quoting a high price? What fee? Though Imran Khan had crossed my mind briefly, it was just that I have never spoken to him, nor Shahid Kapoor, nor Ranbir Kapoor for Midnight’s Children. All fabulous actors, but Saleem Sinai, the unlikely protagonist, is hardly their cup of tea.
Rani Mukerji and Kangna Ranaut were to initially be part of your film. Irrfan opted out due to Life Of Pi and Nandita Das left the film for motherhood. That More >
India emerges as ideal location for Hollywood films
01 year ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Eat Pray Love; A Mighty Heart; The Myth, and now Kathryn Bigelow’s next. India has suddenly become a lot more accessible to top international film directors
Anahita Mukherji | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; March 12, 2012)
Hndi film-makers scouting around for exotic locales across Europe might have been a tad surprised that a Hollywood movie showcasing the slums of Mumbai would go on to win multiple Oscar awards. And nobody who watched Mission Impossible over a decade ago would have imagined that scenes from one of its sequels would be shot in India. Not so long back, action hero Jackie Chan was in the country to promote The Myth, a portion of which was shot in Hampi.
So has the West woken up to the Indian landscape as a backdrop for Hollywood cinema? “India is certainly a flavour that the international market can bank on,” says actor Sid Makkar, who recently finished work on the Judi Dench-starrer The Great Exotic Marigold Hotel, a film based largely in India and directed by John Madden of Shakespeare in Love-fame. In addition to tapping into India’s large English-speaking market, Hollywood directors are also giving Western audiences a slice of India, much the way Hollywood has shaped the urban Indian perceptions about the US, says Makkar.
Big budget foreign films tend to pay both their actors and technicians better than the regular Indian pay-scales, he adds. The economics of shooting a film in India works well for Western film-makers, too, says trade analyst Taran Adarsh, More >
Virkamaditya talks about his favourite photograph
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Director Vikramaditya Motwane shares one of his treasured experimental images of the Taj, taken before he mastered the lens
MUMBAI MIRROR; March 27, 2011
This is one of those pictures I’m very proud of. Funnily enough, it all worked out by sheer accident and I’ve always been fascinated with how it all came together.
Back in 1999, I was about 22 and assisting Deepa Mehta with her film Water. We had gone to Delhi for a recce trip.
Maybe it was about being in Delhi and somewhat of a whim; I had never seen the Taj so I decided to make my way down to Agra on a quick detour.
Since I was just about getting started with photography at the time, I didn’t have any equipment of my own.
I had borrowed gear from a friend and landed up at the gates of the Taj with an SLR film camera, two lenses and an expired roll of Fuji film.
Given the amateur status of my photography at the time and the unreliable expired film, I had no idea how the shoot was going to work out.
I spent the day fooling around with the camera and managed to exhaust the roll, shooting pretty much blind the whole time.
It was a random solo trip so I just had fun with it. When I got back, I cross-processed the film (a mechanism by which one intentionally processes a film roll with chemicals intended for different type of film for unpredictable results).
Like I said, it was mad experimentation but when the image developed I was stunned. It looked fantastic. I was surprised that More >
Nandita Das turns down Deepa Mehta
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 22, 2011)
Balancing motherhood with a career is a tricky one and Nandita Das has made a choice by opting out of old friend Deepa Mehta’s adaptation of Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
It’s a film that has been jinxed with actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Om Puri etc. opting out of the film.
Though signed on to play a pivotal role, Nandita opted out. She says, “With little Vihaan, who is 6 months old now and so delightful, I didnt think I would have been able to do justice to both the roles and would have felt quite torn.
Pity, but as Deepa says, there is Kamagathamaru, where I am playing the female lead and as I say, there is a time for everything!”
Nandita was also supposed to do Deepa Mehta’s Water but was apparently not informed about her ouster from the project.
This led to a cold war between them, which ended when they met in New York two years ago.
For Midnight’s Children Mehta offered Das a guest appearance as well. Says Das, “Even that didn’t make sense as it would have been neither here nor there. I have made the decision.”
Mira, Deepa fail to get Pak visa for film shoot
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta will both shoot their upcoming films in India, using it as a substitute for Pakistan, which refused them visas
Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 04, 2011)
When Deepa Mehta garnered a whirlwind of attention with her tale of abandoned widows, Mira Nair made her stance with The Namesake, which is a story of a Bengali NRI (Irrfan Khan) and his wife’s (Tabu) cross-cultural journey from India to the US and back.
This year appears to be increasing the tensions between the two ladies.
While Nair will shoot a movie adaptation of Moshin Hamid’s novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mehta is all set to shoot an ambitious epic version of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children.
Interestingly, both the projects require a substantial amount of shooting, in Pakistan. However, both the ladies can now feel a sense of solidarity in the thought that their films have been denied permission to shoot across the border.
Now it turns out that Nair’s Reluctant Fundamentalist and Mehta’s Midnight’s Children will secretly recreate a part of Pakistan in Indian shores.
While a source close to Mehta confirms that Midnight’s Children will be shot in India, Nair boldly goes on-record to admit that her film will indeed replicate Lahore in Delhi.
She says, “The two cities Lahore and Delhi are quite similar in topography. So yes, I’m shooting my film in Delhi instead of Lahore.”
Both films dealing with the issue of the identity of the modern Asian Muslim More >
Vidya faints in Hyd multiplex
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
Overworked with promotional trips for No One Killed Jessica and day-long shoots for Sujoy Ghosh’s untitled next, Vidya suffers from a dizzy spell at a multiplex in Hyderabad
Kunal M Shah (MUMBAI MIRROR; December 17, 2010)
If old Bollywood flicks had damsels in distress faint with shock on reel, today’s heroines are doing it in real life. Vidya Balan is the latest one to join the ‘too-stressed-to-stand’ fainting club along with Piggy Chops and Katrina. With the short expiry date on the female-actor package, Vidya is doing too much, too soon.
While promoting her latest flick No One Killed Jessica at a multiplex in Hyderabad, Vidya passed out for a few minutes. Thankfully, the crew members of the film were with her and ready to offer a helping hand. But playing guardian angel was none other than co-star Rani Mukherjee.
A source that was with her at the promotional event said, “Vidya has not had a break since the past five months. Her schedule has been extremely hectic for the past few weeks. She is sleeping for barely 2-3 hours a day.
She definitely needs some rest. Last afternoon, we reached the multiplex where a promotional event for No One Killed Jessica. She told Rani and a couple of people next to her that she was not feeling well.
“A chair was brought for her and she passed out for a couple of minutes. Rani told the crew members to get something sweet for her and water. She was given all these and she sat down for some time. Rani More >
Midnight’s Children ready to roll in Sri Lanka
02 years ago
by Fenil Seta
in Bollywood News
By Devansh Patel, November 13, 2010 – 11:12 IST
Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta and multi-award-winning author Salman Rushdie’s screen adaptation of his extraordinary multi award-winning international bestselling novel Midnight’s Children will commence shooting in Sri Lanka in January 2011.
Shabana Azmi, Irrfan Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Nandita Das, Chandan Roy Sanyal and Seema Biswas will star in the English language film.
The film is being shot in Sri Lanka because Mehta has sworn off India following her nightmare experience shooting Water at Varanasi locations. Water was subsequently shot in Sri Lanka. But Midnight’s Children could yet run into problems because in the late 1990s the BBC was planning to film a five-part mini-series of the novel with Rahul Bose in the lead, but due to pressure from the Muslim community in Sri Lanka, the filming permit was revoked and the project was cancelled.
Mehta and Rushdie have been working together on the screenplay for the past two years. International sales agents FilmNation are handling the film and have already concluded distribution deals with E1 in the UK and UGC in France.
FilmNation CEO Glen Basner said, “At once epic, comic and magical, Midnight’s Children conjures images and characters as rich and unforgettable as India herself. It’s a wonderful project and we are humbled that we have been chosen to represent it.”
Midnight’s Children is the riveting personal story of Saleem, and his changeling twin Shiva, who More >