Hrithik Roshan has given his nod to Tigmanshu Dhulia's interpretation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, to be produced by Goldie Behl. The film is slated to go on the floors mid 2014 while the rest of the details are being worked out.
Says a source, `Tigmanshu Dhulia and Hrithik have been holding meetings for a while now. Hrithik has loved the way Tigmanshu adapted Shakespeare's Hamlet to fit into rural India. The filmmaker specialises in having the hinterlands as the backdrop for his films.
Goldie has already signed Hrithik who will begin work on it after he finishes Siddharth Anand's Bang Bang and Karan Malhotra's Shuddhi.`
Goldie, Tigmanshu and Hrithik remained unavailble for comment.
Earlier attempt
In 2001, Hrithik Roshan was keen to do a Hollywood film titled Aditya based on Hamlet that was to be directed by Tarsem Singh and produced by Los Angeles-based James Killough. However after the initial announcement the international film did not take off.
Powerful tragedy
Hamlet is William Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature with a story capable of seemingly endless retelling and adaptation.
It was one of the Bard's most popular works during his lifetime and still ranks among his most-performed, topping the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance list since 1879. It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as the world's most filmed story after Cinderella.
Set in the kingdom of Denmark, Hamlet dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play explores themes of treachery, revenge and moral corruption.