5 QUESTIONS
BILLBOARD
BOX OFFICE
MAKING WAVES
MEMORIES
MOVIES CHAT
QUOTE MARTIAL
REVIEWS
ROUGH CUTS
SHORT TAKES
SOUTHERN SPICE
THE LIST
WISH THE STARS
ARCHIVES

'I hope Phantom... is my next film'

He isn’t the producer, he isn’t the director, and he’s definitely not going to be acting in it. Yet, he is very much a part of it.

"Bombay Dreams is born out of a friendship," declares Shekhar Kapur, referring to his association with Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. Kapur will be in the picture, as he says, only to bring everybody together. "And I’m happy doing just," he adds.

While this musical is still in a preliminary stage, Kapur has his hands full with other things. He will soon be directing Phantom of the Opera and is also one of the directors of a venture capital fund -- something not too many people know about.

Although Kapur announced he would rather have the questions thrown at him during the press conference, he was polite enough to talk later on a whole range of subjects.

The response to Elizabeth in India hasn’t been all that great. What do you have to say about that?

I can only guess about it. I know the response has been very good in Calcutta. Everybody has seen the film. All my friends have seen it either on DVD or on the cable. And I know that the day Cate Blanchett was here, when I took her home and switched on the television, Elizabeth was being shown on the cable. Actually, there was so much hype around it that when it was finally released, it did not seem to live up to it.

But after all the controversies, the film was released with the cuts…

There was one cut that would have significantly altered the narrative of the film. But it was finally agreed upon reducing one of the love-making scenes. For me, as long as it was there, that was great. The other thing that they asked for was to just remove the word 'quinny' from the sub-titles. That was it, that’s all they asked.

But I refused to edit the scene which shows heads being chopped off. If that scene were to be removed, the movie would not have made sense. People would not have understood anything, the narrative would have been distorted.

When will you start filming Phantom Of The Opera?

Andrew and I are having a meeting tonight. We are working on a new writer. He’ll be sending me a new draft in three weeks time. I really hope that this is the next film I’m going to shoot. And what about the cast for the film?

We have a tentative cast. Andrew and I have agreed that Antonio Banderas will be playing Phantom. We are looking out for a new girl to play Christine. The girl has got to be absolutely stunning. But we haven’t decided who’s going to play Raoul yet.

How do you feel about Manoj Shyamalan getting Oscar nominations?

It's great, I think he has made a very good film.

Do you think he has a better chance to win the Oscars because he is an American citizen?

That’s too controversial, I wouldn't want to say anything!

Have you met Shyamalan?

No, but I have spoken to him.

What happened to the entertainment company that you were going to start with Parmeshwar Godrej?

Well, Parmeshwar and I have to be in the same country at the same time for that. At this moment, there is too much confusion about what’s happening. I get about five calls a day -- 'please direct my film,' 'my entertainment company is going to become public, would you like to be the director? -- and so on.

The entertainment business in India has suddenly decided to come out of its teens. It’s become mature and doesn’t know where to go (from here). It’s feeling a little desperate now. Everywhere you see advertisements saying, ‘we have 100 hours of software, ‘5000 hours of so and so’ and stuff like that. There are too many things happening. Let it all die down, let it all settle down. We’ll still be here, we’ll still remain film-makers.

Tell us something about your venture capital fund with Ghulam Noon.

(Looking stunned) Where did you hear about this?

Isn’t it true?

(After a pause) Well…look, I’m part of a company that has set up a venture capital fund and is about to be quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Noon is one of the directors and so am I. The idea is to have 50 per cent of the money raised through this fund invested in Indian media and technology companies and 50 per cent outside. There’s nothing more complicated than that. The fund is called Softtechnet.com…it’s not my name.

One last question. You said you saw Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai -- did you like the film?

Yeah. I liked it. I liked the guy, the boat and also the locations.

Shekhar Kapur spoke to Swapna Mitter and Kanchana Suggu