Shekhar Kapur shares his journey from Bollywood to Hollywood on CNN’S Talk Asia

Media News

New Delhi, March 19, 2008

Internationally acclaimed film director, Shekhar Kapur, joins CNN's Anjali Rao for a special edition of TALK ASIA airing this weekend. This interview marks the first time CNN’s Talk Asia has been filmed in front of a live studio audience in India.

Kapur talks candidly with Rao about his films, passions and inspirations and spends time with her retracing his career path from accountancy to acting and finally, directing.

He recalls his directorial experiences during ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ and the reasons behind his decision to cast Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth. Kapur takes us back to his time directing his international breakout movie; ’Bandit Queen’. He also talks about the failure of ‘The Four Feathers’ which starred the late Heath Ledger, and ‘Paani’ (Water), his dream project for which he has returned home to Mumbai after a decade in Hollywood.

On ’Paani’, which is currently in development, Kapur reveals the powerful social concept behind the film. A love story set in the future where a global shortage sees water become a tradable commodity. Kapur says “Water is the biggest issue internationally. Most of the wars in the world are now being fought over water. They’re saying, water is gonna be the new oil. Cities are running out of water everywhere. And when a concentrated body of 20 million people run out of water, there’s going to be an immediate war.”

With his unique advantage of having experienced two cultures and two key film industries, Kapur is often considered the authority of cinema, and arts in general, in India. Answering Rao’s question on the appeal of Asian films’ outside the continent, especially given the diversity of cultures, Kapur says that India is “used to making films of diversity” and “make films that actually run anywhere.”

Kapur hopes that “in a few years, we’ll still make Spiderman 6 or 7. It’ll make a billion dollars in its first year, 700 million will come from Asia. And when Spiderman takes his mask off, he’ll either be Chinese or Indian” He tells Rao that “the world is changing, we’re into what I call the influence of economies” and is confident that “India and China are creating their own brands”. Kapur is convinced that “because of the new media, 90% of the new Facebooks will be people from Asia. 80% of everything that goes onto YouTube will be Asian. And then you will be sitting here with an American director and say, how can you make American/Hollywood films international when Asian films are dominating the world?”

On a personal note, Kapur shares with Rao the reasons for the failure of his two marriages and says, “I am a bad husband”, adding, “when two people love each other they have to give each other enough personal space to grow as individuals.”

Besides being involved in the film industry, the multi-talented Kapur also shares his love for creating comic book characters, the reason he co-founded Virgin Comics and Animation with British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson and author, Dr. Deepak Chopra.

A full interview transcript will be available after the first airing, and for additional program information on TALK ASIA, please visit www.cnn.com/talkasia.

For further information, please contact:

Eesha verma

e-mail: eesha.verma@ipan.com