Motorcycle Diaries

sipping on a cup of masala chai in a white khadi shirt and trousers. On his fourth visit to the country,Luhrmann is here purely for the love of it with Australian artist and friend Vincent Fantauzzo. “Vincent said he was going to India to paint a wall mural and I just accompanied him since I love the culture. But on a larger level I wanted to extend my support in settling the strained relations between both countries,” adds Luhrmann who,despite being a music composer,writer,actor and filmmaker,likes to be referred to as a storyteller first.

The duo recently returned from a road trip across Rajasthan photographing the countryside and its people and exhibited their works in New Delhi. In Mumbai,an exhibition-cum-sale took place last night at the newly-opened Le Sutra in Khar. “As a story teller I feel compelled to tell stories through different mediums. It is all part of a creative process that helps me on another level in my films,” says Luhrmann,brandishing a bandaged right hand,which he had

injured when he fell off his motorbike during the road trip. In fact,Luhrmann also pitched in with the wall mural at the Le Sutra hotel with Fantauzzo where they painted a dance-themed painting. Luhrmann,who is now ‘good friends’ with AR Rahman,is planning to collaborate with the music composer in a project soon. “We share a great working relationship and will work on a project only when there is something special. He also composed the music for a video we shot in Mumbai recently,” he explains.

After his Hollywood disaster Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman,Luhrmann is working on a collaborative project with Fantauzzo apart from beginning work on an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book The Great Gatsby. “We have acquired the rights for the book and will soon begin casting for the project. There are other things at different stages of completion. But India figures in some form or the other,” he concludes.