Mahesh Bhatt has been all praises for his latest protege, filmmaker Srijit Mukherjee's new Bangla film, “Rajkahini” that stars, among others, Jaya Ahsan. He is now working on a Hindi adaptation of the film with Srijit, who bagged the National Award for Best Director for his film “Chotushkone” this year.
“Like Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil in their films, and my daughter Alia Bhatt in 'Highway', this film too has one of the greatest performances by a woman - Rituparna Sengupta as Begum Jaan,” asserts Bhatt, who is convinced it will make for an engrossing Bollywood drama. The film follows the Bengal partition through a new border between India and Bangladesh that runs right through a brothel that houses 11 women.
“This premise is thrilling and it moved me to the core. In the red rays of the rising sun, a sleeping India awakens, said Tagore. When you watch Srijit's film, you feel that awakening. It is a soul-stirring tale and the Hindi audiences will love it,” says Bhatt, who is coming on board as the co-writer and creative director.
Admitting that the writing will be a long process, he avers that the story does not sing; it bleeds. “It's a volcanic explosion which has erupted from the cultural citadel of Bengal and will burn and purify you,” says the 67-year-old filmmaker, who would like Rituparna to act in the Hindi remake too. “She brought tears to my eyes in a few scenes and I told her that I want to cast her in my film,” he said.