Six scripts get shortlisted by Shakespeare India to commemorate the Bard’s 400th death centenary

With the other finalists, he underwent a mentoring session in London in July as part of a lab at Microschool, a programme that is working exclusively with Indian talent (based in India or the UK) and teamed producers with writers-directors to create teams. Next month, the six teams will send their revised drafts to Film London.

While Kapoor has partnered with UK-based producer Uzma Hasan on Mathura, other participants based in India include writers/ directors Bornila Chatterjee, Tanaji Dasgupta, Pratyusha Gupta and Vikas Chandra. The producers are Umesh Pawar, Achin Jain and Smriti Jain. Other projects include adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus and Julius Ceasar.

Kapoor has adapted Shakespeare’s works for the stage to critical acclaim — Hamlet was turned into Hamlet – The Clown Prince and King Lear into Nothing Like Lear. He chose As You Like It this time because of the story’s comic content.

The play, famous for soliloquies such as “All the world’s a stage” follows the adventures of the royal cousins Rosalind and Celia who flee the palace of Duke Frederick for the Forest of Arden and find love there. Eccentric characters and disguised heroines — Rosalind becomes a man called Ganymede — make this one of Shakespeare’s most popular pastoral works.

Chandra, Creative Producer on Dibakar Banerjee’s Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, was drawn to The Merchant of Venice because “I didn’t study Shakespeare in school. His only work I am familiar with is The Merchant of Venice. I had directed it as a play during my college years in Delhi.” The story of Shylock the Jew, who is pitted against the noblemen of Venice, is pivoted on issues of racism, ageism and discrimination and has divided audience opinions for centuries.

Chandra’s adaptation, tentatively titled Love and Longing in Rohtak, looks to be a dark comedy set against contemporary conflicts of caste and politics.

The Microschool lab has brought in experts such as British producers Tristan Goligher and Andrea Calderwood and actor-director Nandita Das as mentors and lectureres. “Such a lab helps producers be on the same page with the writer and director. It makes us ask ourselves crucial questions, such as ‘What is the film really trying to convey?’ This one factor alone can aid the success of a film,” says Chandra.

The story appeared in print with the headline Shakespeare Wallahs