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By Vickey Lalwani Š2003 Bollyvista.com |
Not so long ago, director Deepa Mehta who won critical acclaim for making offbeat films like 'Fire' (Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Jaaved Jaaferi, Kulbushan Kharbanda) and '1947: Earth' (Aamir Khan, Rahul Khanna, Nandita Das) had flown down to Mumbai for a hush-hush meeting with Kareena Kapoor. Result? Mehta signed Kareena for her forthcoming film 'River Moon' co-starring Rahul Khanna.
Before leaving India, Mehta could not stop singing praises of both her choices and her film. "I feel Rahul has the right attitude and an unlimited range. I wanted a romantic hero with an international appeal since the project (in English and Hindi) would primarily be for an international market. As for Kareena, she is simply stunning. Her face is almost like a shimmering river of emotions- very fascinating. My film will have her in a unique role that will utilise her ethereal personality to the maximum. She has an inherent glamour, which I won't try to curb. Why cast her otherwise? But I'll give her personality another interpretation. She exudes tremendous star power. What was also important is that I really liked her as a person."
"We will shoot in one go from October-end to December. We hope to take the film in the competition section of Cannes Film Festival. Hopefully, Kareena and Rahul will be standing there with me at Cannes next year," added the director who has worked with internationally acclaimed actresses like Jessica Tandy and Shabana Azmi.
But if the road is smooth for Mehta at Cannes, yet Rahul and Kareena both will not be standing beside her. Reason?
For reasons best known to them, both have opted out from the project.
Rahul Khanna has been replaced by John Abraham. Akshay Kumar was the first choice for this role. Rahul's dad, Vinod Khanna, forced his son to opt out.
Who gets into Kareena's shoes remains to be seen.
Latest, one more controversy is building up on 'River Moon'. There is a buzz that 'River Moon' is Mehta's old, unreleased film 'Water' - her film about the plight of widows in India. Last year, 'Water' had met with tremendous political objection with a violent political campaign organised by Hindu fundamentalists associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). |
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