Blown out of water: Shekhar Kapur's Paani has allegedly been shelved

Water, water everywhere. But not a drop to drink?

Shekhar Kapur, was meant to finally return to feature-film direction with his ambitious project, Paani, eight years after his English feature film Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

The pre-production was on and he had roped in Sushant Singh Rajput as the lead in his futuristic take on Romeo & Juliet, which revolves around a time when the water scarcity in Mumbai would divide the city into two sharp halves of the haves and have-nots. However, now there is a murmur in the industry that Paani has been shelved for the time being.

“Sushant started his preparation for the role 2 years back. There were also the rigorous rehearsals. Paani was supposed to start shooting in the last quarter of 2014. That didn’t materialize. It was then supposed to start in the beginning of 2015. As the two dates came and went Sushant patiently waited for the project to start," says the source.

Apparently Sushant has already lost two plum projects while waiting for Paani to start. “Sushant had to say no to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela and Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor to keep his date diary unoccupied for Paani,” says the source.

Shekhar has been planning Paani for 9 years now. In the period he has made only two short films, one of which was a segment of New York, I Love You, the 2008 film that pays homage to New York city.

Shekhar’s plans to make Paani started in 1994 when Dev Benegal’s Split Wide Open alleged that the idea for Paani was ripped off from their film. He even threatened to sue Shekhar Kapur. Years and years after the heated fracas one hears nothing about Paani.

Right after Paani was announced, Preity Zinta was all set to feature in Mantra, a multi-million magical, fantasy film, which Kapur was supposed to produce for director Vishal Bhardwaj. Needless to add, Mantra melted into a nothingness.

Undoubtedly one of the most gifted filmmakers from this part of the world, Kapur’s indecisiveness and his inability to grasp at ideas and crystallize them in celluloid shapes is costing him heavily in terms of credibility. Just think of the number of times he has said yes, raised hopes and dashed them to the ground.

In 1987, Kapur did the much talked-about Mr India for Boney Kapoor. The film was a happy experience for all. To no one’s surprise, Boney asked Shekhar to direct Boney’s youngest brother Sanjay’s launch pad. After hemming and hawing for years over Prem, Kapur opted out. In the interim, leading lady Tabu began to lose patience and Sanjay Kapoor was ridiculed as the oldest newcomer in Bollywood.

With a reputation that preceded him, Kapur could only head one way. Westwards. In collaboration with Britain’s Channel 4, he made Bandit Queen, one of the most hard-hitting and unforgettable Indian films ever created.

What next? Kapur took on what he always wanted to, a big Hollywood-styled bio-pic which surprised many. Elizabeth, with its brooding biographical landscape was historical. And to nobody’s surprise, for the next four years Kapur made nothing.

Vacillating among numerous projects, he finally did a version of A. E.W Mason’s story about cowardice and valour at war, The Four Feathers. It turned out to be a miserable failure, putting a big question mark against Shekhar Kapur’s career as an international filmmaker. Not that there has been a dearth of film offers, but there’s definitely a creative anxiety about Kapur’s career.

Since Kapur has been playing hopscotch with possible projects, considering them and then discarding them as though life was not all about choices, but not making them.

In an interview with this writer in 2008, Shekhar had spoken passionately about Paani: “Paani is not just about water shortage. It’s about the callousness of a world where about three percent of the populace are haves; the rest are have-nots. And what a wonderful way to speak of that disparity through the one resource that we’re most squandering away. "

“Then one day I went to a producer friend’s place on the 13th floor and I was told he was bathing. Go down to the ground floor and you pass through the Dharavi slums and you see hordes of women and children queuing up for a bucket of water. I realised the poor are paying 2,000 times more money for their water than the guy who was in the shower for half an hour. To me water is the basic resource, the next thing to air. Water is already being bottled and sold. Nobody has the right to pollute our water resources. Imagine mineral water being sold at Rs.90! Water as a fashion statement! I refuse to drink bottled water. I know it’s the beginning of the process to privatise water. The ecological cost of bottled water is immense. A story developed in my mind. I had to make a film. But, I’m setting it in 2025 and to me, that isn’t so far away,” said Shekhar, five years ago.

Will Kapur please confirm at least one of the pending projects? Or does he intend to be known as just a passionate proposal maker who promised a universe of cinematic experience but finally delivered just a trickle of the promised goodies?