Indian director to produce film on Genocide

Indian film director Shekhar Kapur, who is known as the author of sensitive "Masoom", the hilariously thrilling "Mr. India", is now going to create film on the Armenian Genocide. 

In an interview with IANS, he has considered the project very challenging.

He had recently tweeted that he was going to Yerevan, Armenia's capital, to collect material on the event. The idea, he said, came to him from a script sent by the man who wrote "Motorcyle Diaries".

"It is a part of world history though a very shameful one," Kapur told IANS.

"The idea came to me based on a script sent to me by the screenwriter of 'Motorcycle Diaries' (Puerto Rican Jose Rivera). I fell in love with the script. It is a challenging project though. It will require lots of money, lots of passion and organisation. But there are a lot of passionate people behind this project. So it will hopefully see the light of day," he said.

However, filming of the movie will not start before another year, said Kapur, who is yet to begin work on his long-pending movie on water wars, "Paani".

Controversy is not said to be something new to Kapur. He had drawn flak from British tabloids in 2002, when he directed his own version of A.E.W. Mason's novel "The Four Feathers", starring the late Heath Ledger. The novel is centred on the Mahdist War in Sudan, sparked by the death of Charles Gordon (Gordon Pasha). Kapur was accused of being 'anti-British' when the film released.

"I was not anti-British. I was anti-colonisation. That is why I made the film. I made my own version because the novel and the previous film versions were heavily pro-colonial. It was colonial arrogance that led the British to intervene in Sudan. It was this that I wanted to show," clarified Kapur.

The 66-year-old is the only Indian to have made a successful Hollywood film. "Elizabeth" (1998) won Cate Blanchett the Bafta and the Golden Globe for best actress though she lost out on the Oscar. The film, however, received an Oscar for best makeup. The sequel "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007) was also well received.
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