Vishal Bhardawaj Speaks To Subhash K Jha

First Macbeth, then Othello...you seem to be fascinated by Shakespeare.
Afer Maqbool I wanted to adapt Julius Caesar for producer Bobby Bedi. But then I met Shekhar Kapoor and the idea for Mantra starring Preity Zinta, was born. We started working on that project with 7-8 writers for more than six months. Shekhar and I had differences over the final outcome of the script.

Then I had this small script called The Blue Umbrella. Everyone was after me to make it. I shared my problems with Ronnie Screwvala on UTV. He agreed to produce The Blue Umbrella on condition that UTV get to produce my next film.

Buy one and get one free?
Kind of (laughs). The Blue Umbrella which I've completed is a relatively small project. It's the kind of cinema I believe in, but would never get to make without the backing of a big production house. Given the money I'd make The Blue Umbrella on the same scale as Othello.

If I may say so, I'm very proud of my work in The Blue Umbrella. The film's protagonists are kids. But the target audience are adults. The main protagonist is a really talented girl called Shreya Sharma. She's as good as Shweta Prasad in Makdee.

Whom would you have cast as Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony?
Sanjay Dutt and Irrfan were in my mind. Actually my fascination with Shakespeare has to do with the lack of story-writing talent in Bollywood. A good story works even if badly shot. To find good stories is very difficult.

My Makdee was an original. The three-act structure for Ruskin Bond's The Blue Umbrella is hard to come by in the scripts being written today....So yes, I did go to Shakespeare twice. I'll make a trilogy of Shakespeare films. I don't know which and when.

But there will be a trilogy for sure...I may adapt a Shakespearean comedy next. Actually I decided to go to Shakespeare after watching Gulzar Saab's Angoor which was an adaptation of A Comedy Of Errors.

Your Othello's cast is as awesome as Ramesh Sippy's Sholay...
Yeah, in Omkara I had Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi and Bipasha Basu. And one of my favourites Naseeruddin Shah played a cameo(of the Duke). Naseer is such a sweet man. We met at the Goa film festival. I asked him to conduct a workshop for my actors on Omkara.

He said, "I will conduct a workshop if you give me a role.".These stars help me sell more tickets. But I won't be using them as regular stars. I want to present them as they've never before. Saif in my film isn't cool, but very uncouth...

Why was your project Mr Mehta & Mrs Singh dropped?
It isn't dropped. Aamir was keen to work with me for a long time. I narrated a few stories. He liked Mr Mehta and Mrs Singh (written by Abhishek Choubey and Robin Bhatt) the best and asked me to work on the script. For 7-8 months we were both excited

By the idea. But then we came to a turning point in the narration where we completely disagreed. I could see his point of view and he could see mine. But we couldn't come to a common ground. He was reacting as an intelligent actor. I could see his point of view.

We agreed to disagree. Please don't make it sound like a war or something. My relationship with Aamir is very precious. We're working together in future for sure. We've promised each other...