Vandana Kataria’s directorial debut, “Noblemen”, which is themed on William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, is all set for a theatrical release. Starring Kunal Kapoor in the pivotal role of a drama teacher, “Nobelmen” is a coming-of-age drama that explores the themes of bullying, homophobia, and toxic masculinity rampant in the society through the microcosm of a prestigious boarding school in Mussoorie.
“I am signed up with a talent management company called Tulsi Pictures. So they told me that Yoodle Films is making this project where they want filmmakers to pick up world literature in the public domain so that there are no issues of copyright. So, I turned to Shakespeare. He writes it so well that the ground material is already so good,” reveals Kataria, who has previously served as production designer on three Dibakar Banerjee films, including “Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!” and as a second unit director on Zoya Akhtar’s “Gully Boy”.
She adds, “ ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is a story about a Jew moneylender wanting his revenge against a Christian merchant because he is bullied by these Christians. So I thought that we can also do this bullying story but make it all about bullying. I decided to set it in an all-boy’s school because ‘The Merchant of Venice’ is also based in an all male world except for Portia and a few other female characters.”
Adapting a work of Shakespeare is something that perhaps finds a place on the to-do list of every filmmaker. Right from the days of silent era, filmmakers have made their inclination towards Shakespeare pretty clear. Ever since the 1899 film “King John”, the earliest known example of a motion picture based on a play by William Shakespeare, we have had hundreds of film and television adaptations inspired by the works of the Bard of Avon. But adapting Shakespeare for the screen is no cinch.
It is quite evident from the number of forgettable Shakespeare adaptations that we have witnessed in cinema over the last 120 years. And yet filmmakers around the world have continued to adapt Shakespeare undeterred by the impending failure. Kataria, who grew up reading Shakespeare, too succumbed to the temptation. While she was temporarily able to overcome all the fears, she now waits in anticipation of how well her film gets received. “I am really scared, wondering what will the greats of the industry, who have successfully adapted Shakespeare such as Vishal Bhardwaj, say when they see my film and what their verdict would be. So I am little nervous about that. Also, the fact that Shakespeare is so dear to the audiences makes it even more challenging,” confesses Kataria who will begin the shooting of her next film with Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP Movies by early next year.
More than a decade after he shot to fame with Rang de Basanti , Kunal Kapoor still remains quite underutilised as an actor. “Well, I always take that as a compliment. Whenever I meet people they always tell me that I should do more work. Frankly, that’s a good thing to hear. But the fact of the matter is that you can only pick from the stuff that you have been offered. And if the stuff that that you are being offered is not exciting enough, then you can only pick little work. If I got 10 films that I thought were exciting, then I would certainly love to do all of them,” chuckles Kapoor who started his film career about two decades back as a production assistant.
“I have been on a movie set for the last couple of decades as a production assistant, assistant director, actor, etc. and that’s the place where I feel the happiest at. I love being on a movie set and I can do that 24/7. But I also have to be offered that sort of work. And that’s the reason why I have chosen to do less work. I think it also works positively in a way. For instance, a director that I recently worked with told me that one of the reasons that I was considered for the part was because I have done so little work. I believe that’s a good thing. The fact that there are filmmakers out there who feel that there are so many different ways that they can still present me,” says the “Gold” actor
Kapoor, who intends to slowly shift his focus to writing, is certainly not alien to Shakespeare. “We had two plays of Shakespeare in school: ‘Julius Caesar’ and ‘The Tempest’. After that in college I was in the theatre group and I did “Romeo and Juliet” wherein I played Romeo. So those were my first introductions to Shakespeare. I recently did a Malayalam film called ‘Veeram’ which is based on ‘Macbeth’,” reveals Kapoor whose fascination for the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s works has only grown stronger over the years. “It’s been so many years since Shakespeare wrote them and still his work is constantly interpreted across the world. Actors are dying to play his characters and filmmakers never get tired of making his plays into movies. I think it’s partly because the characters that he wrote were so complex and layered that they are open to so much interpretation that as an actor and filmmaker there is so much that you can still discover about work that has been made over and over again,” asserts Kapoor who is currently shooting for a film called “Koi Jaane Naa” .
