Director Abhishek Kapoor has a thing for films inspired by books. His latest film, Fitoor starring Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapoor, is inspired by Charles Dickens’ novel, ‘Great Expectations’, and is scheduled to release this year.
“It is set in an Indian milieu. I have not taken the story as it is, but have worked on it to show my take on it,” he says. Kapoor’s previous films have also been adaptations like Kai Po Che which was Chetan Bhagat’s novel ‘The 3 Mistakes of My Life’.“My journey in the industry has been very unpredictable. I don’t have a godfather in the industry. I don’t have any background. In fact, I joined as an actor and directed my first film, Aryan, in 2006. It didn’t do that well. When that did not work, I started writing stories,” says the director who hails from Mumbai.
The Rock On!! director has collaborated with Disney India for a cinematic rendition of the ‘Mahabharata’. This one will see live action with a script penned by writer Ashok Banker, who has written books based on the epic ‘Ramayana’.
Kapoor, 43, who recently got married to actress Pragya Yadav, has grown up watching Bollywood films. His favourites being Sholay and Amar Akbar and Anthony. As for adaptations, Kapoor says the first step is to identify a story in a book and then translate it into a screenplay.
The director picks his favourite adaptations
Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann: He just turned the book on its head. The filming style was contemporary and he juxtaposed it with the original dialogue which was fantastic. I loved this one.
Kalyug (‘Mahabharata’) by Shyam Benegal: Setting Mahabharata in the world of family business and high finance gave it a fabulous twist. I’m spiritual and believe a lot in Bhagavad Gita. That helped me when I was going through a rough patch.
Maqbool (‘Macbeth’) by Vishal Bhradwaj: The performance of the actors brought alive the characters of Macbeth, especially Tabu, who did a fantastic job.