WE have forgotten about SAAWARIYA
March 19, 2008
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali received a 15 minute-long standing ovation from a 2,500-strong crowd at the posh Theatre du Chatelet in Paris for his adaptation of Albert Rousell’s melodramatic opera Padmavati.
The director talks to Us from Paris. “It is a very, very, very proud moment,” gushes Bhansali.”For one-and-a-half months, I have been living Padmavati. It was very challenging to do an opera, which is completely different from my world of filmmaking, in front of a live audience.And that too, in a foreign land with the help of foreign people,” says Bhansali. He’s still coming to terms with the thrill of going live, both in terms of the immediate appreciation and the tension of anticipation.”I can’t explain in words how the curtains came down with a trail of thundering applause.
I was a nervous wreck a night before the staging.As the opera opened I was backstage, watching it on the monitor. For two hours, I was on tenterhooks, waiting with my fingers crossed.I was counting, one scene over - 15 more to go.” Written by Albert Roussel in 1923, the opera is the story of Padmavati, the queen of Chittor, who gave up her life to preserve love and dignity.”The script was written in French and the music was Western Classical. Though we have taken a chance with a few Indian-style compositions, I have kept the look and feel completely Indian, in terms of rituals and body language.It was a wonderful fusion,” he says. So, what next? “There will be another film.”
Really! “It might be a happy love story” he elaborates. It’ll be interesting to see what emerges post the failure of Saawariya and the success of Padmavati.
