Shekhar Kapur: Sushant Singh Rajput was the perfect fit for 'Paani'

Ace Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is back after 14 years with a new film. This time with a romantic comedy 'What's Love Got To Do With It'. The film has been making quite some noise at international film festivals. From winning Best Comedy film at Rome Film Festival to getting a standing ovation atToronto Film Festival, it's going places. The film has been written and produced by Jamima Khan and stars Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Lily James and Shazad Latif. WION spoke to Shekhar Kapur about his comeback, his absence from the Hindi film industry and working with Emma Thompson.

Shekhar Kapur, a young chartered accountant left his job in the UK and decided to become a filmmaker. He made his debut as a director 40 years back with 'Masoom' starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah. Kapur tells us why he never made a film like 'Masoom' or something in the same genre.

"I often think about how did I pull off a film like Masoom. And I realised I think we lack naivety. Ultimately creativity is naive. Often when people ask why didn't I make a film like 'Masoom' I say I can't because I am not that naive anymore. I am burdened with skill, with knowledge of filmmaking, with my success as an international filmmaker."

The 'Masoom' director whose latest film is set to open Saudi Arabia's Red Sea Film Festival on December 1 says how easy it was for him to get Shabana Azmi onboard for the film.

"I just called her and told her, let's do a film together and she said yes let's do it. That's all and when we were working on the film she kept saying Shekhar you haven't changed a bit in these 40 years."

Oscar award-winning actor Emma Thompson on the other hand was someone even Kapur didn't think would come onboard.

"We never knew if we would get Emma. We tried. I spoke to her one day, I talked about the film. She thought about it. Then of course Jamima being Jamima took her for a long walk in Hyde park and then she came back and said 'Yeah, I'll do it'. What an amazing prize having Emma on the sets was. Other than the fact that Shabana and Emma have become best friends. I think they still talk to each other every week. And that relationship also helped the film."

But we hardly see him making films for the Hindi film industry. The three films we remember are Masoom, Mr India and Bandit Queen but why don't we see more of Shekhar Kapur in India? Here's what he had to say.

"I did come back. I did try and make 'Paani' once. You know making a film is like going climbing. So you are roped to a lot of people and you are climbing this ledge. If one person is not willing to go because you are roped to each other, everybody falls. And it's really important for the producers the actors, the directors all to have the exact same goal, the same vision. So we found that we were not aligned in our vision."

But the good news is that we will see him soon as he is coming back to make Paani as he has the right producers for the film with whom he thinks he can work with and who have the same vision as his for the film. We all know late actor Sushant Singh Rajput was in talks with Kapur and was an integral part of 'Paani' to which the filmmaker says that he was perfect for the role.

"When I took on Sushant. He wasn't a big star. I needed somebody who wasn't a big star. Who actually grows through the film and you discover this person through the film. So I'll find somebody like that. It was a pity. Actually, it's far more complicated. Between the time Yash Raj and Sushant broke up to the point of his passing away it was three or four years. By that time I had already left and was doing other stuff. Sushant was perfect for it that time."

Shekhar Kapur was recently spotted catching up with 'Baahubali' 'RRR' filmmaker Rajamouli in Hyderabad. So talking about the booming south film industry he said.

"It is not about what is going wrong with the Hindi film industry. It's what's going right and has always gone right with the south Indian film industry. They have always been rooted in their culture. Whereas in Bollywood there has always been an attempt to go wider and not rooted."

Shekhar also revealed during the interview that he plan to launch his daghter Kaveri as an actor. Kaveri is his 21-year-old daughter with ex-wife Suchitra Krishnamoorthy, who is also a songwriter and singer. Kapur has previously directed her music video and now is planning to launch her in Bollywood.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Kapur's film 'What's Love Got To Do With It?' will be hitting theatres worldwide on January 27, 2023.