Shekhar Kapoor, who made his last feature film in 2007, was meant to return to film direction with Paani — a futuristic take on Romeo and Juliet, set in a time when water scarcity would divide Mumbai in two halves.
A.R. Rahman has been roped in to compose the film’s music and Sushant Singh Rajput was signed in early 2014 to play the lead or Romeo from the ghettos. But the film hasn’t made any progress since. In fact, even a year later the rest of cast for the film is yet to be finalised.
Says a source, “Sushant started his preparation for the role eight months ago. The shooting was due to start in the last quarter of 2014. After that, early 2015 was the next scheduled quarter, but that didn’t materialise either.”
Meanwhile Sushant has been anxiously waiting for the film too. “He has already said no to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani and Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor in order to honour his commitment to Paani. One doesn’t know how much longer it will take,” says a source close to Sushant.
While Shekhar and Sushant refrained from commenting, YRF’s spokesperson responded saying that the project is still in the pre-production stage.
