"We've grown up with those kinds of stories."
Shekhar Kapur is planning on making an “Indian equivalent” to the Harry Potter franchise.
The filmmaker made the revelation whilst speaking about his venture into western films with Elizabeth.
Responding to whether he felt he should have made more Indian films, Shekhar said:
“I did try. I spent five or six years trying to make Bandit Queen, too. I did try and make Paani. And I spent five or six years in India trying to do that.
“I wanted to make Paani as an Indian production. Because one of the things that I always felt was, Slumdog Millionaire, even though it made around $400 million worldwide, was not called an Indian film.
“I really wanted Paani to be an Indian film. I came back to India to make it, even though at one point, I was thinking of making it in Spanish. I had thought of setting it in Mexico City, because we have the same problems over there, too.
“The same confrontations and the culture is the same. But I lost about five, six years of my life at that time.
“I want to make a film in India now. Everybody tells me, ‘Oh, why don’t you make Mr India 2?’
“And I know what they’re saying is that can you make another film? They’re not really saying Mr India 2, they can’t be serious about that.
“I am actually planning a project, which is kind of the Indian Harry Potter. I’m not making Harry Potter. But the Indian equivalent to it. Same genre. That genre of Harry Potter because I think in India, with the market we have, we are so used to things that are otherworldly.
“We’ve grown up with those kinds of stories.
“I am now developing and probably will make a film franchise like Harry Potter, that comes out of India and not the West.”
Shekhar Kapur is coming off the release of his directorial What’s Love Got To Do With It? Speaking about the film, he said:
“Well, it’s about Pakistani immigrant families. I would not call them Pakistani. Of course, they’re Pakistani immigrants.
“So they’re really British Asians. That’s how I would say.
“The script was written by Jemima Khan, who was married to Imran Khan and she was married in Lahore and a lot of that has inspired the story of What’s Love Got To Do With It?
“It’s not what she experienced, but it is inspired by her experience of culture in Lahore.
“When I read the script, I realised that immigrant British Asian families in London are exactly the way we are.”
“So one of the reasons I wanted to make this film is that it chronicles the families. That’s the first thing. The idea that families, whether they are Chinese or Indian or Pakistani or the Jewish families in New York are exactly the same.
“The politics of the families are exactly the same. In fact, when the film got released in Sydney or Italy or Spain, people would say, ‘Oh my God, my grandmother’s exactly like that’ in Spanish.
“Or they would say, ‘Oh my God, my parents are just like that’. Or in New York, somebody would say, ‘Do you know how hard my mother tried to get me married to somebody she liked?’
“I have my own experience about being an Indian with 42 first cousins. So I know my family and how it goes.”
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