The whole idea of turning the Aladdin tale into a modern-day Bollywood yarn came from Sujoy’s urge to write a screenplay out of a story. “I am not a story writer, I am a screenplay writer,” he explains. “When I wrote my first two scripts, I figured out that I was writing screenplay-based stories and not story-based screenplays. If it’s a Jhankaar Beats, it works. If it’s a Home Delivery, it doesn’t. So, this time I wanted to start with a story and what better one than Aladdin?”
But more than the story or the screenplay it is the casting of Aladdin and the Mystery of the Lamp that will make heads turn. While Riteish has been cast as Aladdin Chatterjee — yes, he’s a Bengali — the role of the genie, Genius in Sujoy’s world, will be played by Amitabh Bachchan. “He just liked the feel of the whole thing when I narrated the script to him,” says Sujoy.“It was a very numbing yet uplifting experience when he agreed to be a part of my film,” he says in the same breath. “Come on, he’s the reason I am in the industry, I have grown up on him. He initially wanted me to go back and work more on the script. That’s fair enough. If you want the best, you have to show him the best. And it also pushes me that extra mile.”
A couple of years back, Sujoy had planned another film with Bachchan called Borivali which never worked out. “It was a thriller set in a future Mumbai,” he reveals. “I had initially imagined it with Mr. Bachchan and Naseerji. Then with Mr. Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt.”Dutt is in the Aladdin film, too. “He’s the counterpart of the genie,” Sujoy offers. “You can call him an antagonist. His character is more of an analogy to the character of Joker in Batman. He has his own backstory and why he is doing what he is doing.”
The project was initially planned as an AB Corp production but while AB himself is very much a part of the cast, it is not being produced by his company. Rohan Sippy’s RS Entertainment will back Sujoy’s Aladdin and the Mystery of the Lamp.“Rohan has a certain amount of faith in me and more importantly we speak the same language,” says Sujoy. “To be honest I didn’t have a lot of choices. Also, Mr. Bachchan is very comfortable with Rohan on board. So, it will be a happy environment to work in, with everyone seriously believing in the project. Because for a film like this, a lot of midnight oil has to be burnt.”
And that’s mostly because of the visual extravaganza Sujoy wants to create on screen. “I have always believed that cinema should be visually exciting,” he explains. “It should take you to a new level. Even Jhankaar Beats, which had no special effects, created a world where the audiences have never been before. For Aladdin..., I am planning to hire an international special effects team to make the film at par with the best in the world. It should be visually striking. Nahole to shobai radio shunte pare.”When Alladin was a very small project, Sujoy was actually planning to shoot the movie in Calcutta and had even come to the city to scout locations. But now with the Sippys coming on board and Amitabh Bachchan heading the cast, Sujoy has to look elsewhere. “We are looking at a lot of options, from the UK to northern India,” he reveals. “We plan to start the film some time next year because this will take some detailed post-production before we go on the sets.”
While his other crew is yet to be decided, Sujoy favourites Vishal-Shekhar, whose Pancham tributes punctuated Jhankaar Beats, will again score the music.And Aladdin and his Genius friend can trigger off yet another kids movie franchise after Krrish. “I find franchises very boring,” says Sujoy. “But if this film works and people love the characters, then maybe, we will have to make more films with them.”Right now, though, it’s all about soaking in the lovely British weather in Darlington. “I am just having a ball with my kids and also writing a graphic novel with Indian characters,” signs off Sujoy.
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