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Prabhu Deva alongside Johnny Depp

By Behindwoods News Bureau.

December 16, 2007

They call him dancer without bones and he makes no bones about it. Prabhu Deva is one choreographer whose presence makes even some of the best dancers sweat. Recently, in a television interview, Madhuri Dixit confessed that Prabhu Deva’s presence, while performing along with him for a song in the Hindi film Pukaar, made her nervous.



It is to be noted that this choreographer has carved a niche for himself for his acting skills as well. Though he turned to direction and tasted success in all his projects both in Tamil as well as Telugu, offers to act haven't ceased pouring in.

He was last seen in a short film on AIDS awareness, directed by Santhosh Sivan. This was a part of four short films directed by four different directors and produced by acclaimed director Mira Nair. Mira Nair, well known for her films like Vanity Fair, Mississipi Masala, Salaam Bombay and Monsoon Wedding, is busy scouting for actors for her next film Shantaram based on the novel by Gregory David Roberts. This project is co-produced by Hollywood actor Johnny Depp who also plays the lead in this film. The other actors whose place has been confirmed for this mega budget film are Amitabh Bachchan, Irfan Khan and Konkona Sen. What draws our attention is the fact that she was so impressed with Prabhu Deva's performance in the short film on AIDS that she is trying to rope him in for this project. At last fans will get to see their dancing star alongside Big B and pirate Jack Sparrow. Should be one movie to watch out for, but fans might have to wait a while as the movie is to hit the floors only in late 2008.

Here's another one!

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Konkona Sen Sharma bags Mira Nair's Shantaram

By Subhash K. Jha, December 15, 2007 - 12:40 IST

Konkona Sen-Sharma is really going places. After taking the elusive Tabu's place in Zoya Akhtar's directorial debut Luck By Chance, Konkona is treading into Tabu's territory once again. Konkona will play a small but vital part in Mira Nair's Shantaram.It would be recalled that Konkona was Mira Nair's initial choice for the much-lauded Namesake. The actress begged off for date's sake. Tabu stepped in.

Contrary to the flights of fancy in certain media circles about Mira Nair’s ambitious adaptation of Gregory David Roberts' bestseller Shantaram being aborted due to Johnny Depp’s fancy fee, the project is very much on.

Reacting with her usual chortle of incredulity talk back home, Mira says, "Alas, We have been stalled temporarily due to the crippling nature of the writers' strike in Hollywood. Johnny Depp assures me that this is just a pause, and that we'll rev up to go again once the strike is resolved. I’ve spent a year of creative endeavour in realising Shantaram, so I look forward to the time when it will all come together."

The cast which initially boasted of Bachchan with Depp now has, among others, the rapidly-rising Konkona Sen in a very special role. Divulges Mira, "In addition to Johnny Depp and Amitabh Bachchan, I'd confirmed Irrfan Khan in a major role and Konkona Sen for a one big dramatic scene. I've also been in talks with Prabhudeva, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade and Ranvir Sheorey. I'd also love to work with Pankaj Kapoor. We have such an extraordinary bunch of great actors in India!"

Mira should know. She worked with a slew of them in her career-defining musical Monsoon Wedding. And now as Shantaram gets shifted to end of 2008, Mira prepares to do a Broadway-styled stage adaptation of Monsoon Wedding.

I do wish we'd get some sort of industry confirmation about these castings. I'd feel a whole lot better about the film's possibilities.

Am anxiously awaiting the casting of Karla. I keep seeing Eva Green in the role.

LOL...Yes. Well,.. the American movie Industry seems to be busy with strike arguements. So at least these comments are in quotes from Mira.
I'm thinking this is about the best we can do at the moment. Even if industry sources are not related to the Writer's strike, they still may be supporting it, and holding out on new casting information.

I almost think this quote is a purposeful move on Mira's part, because it tells us alot in comparison to what we'd normally get from her. She dropped alot of names! At the same time, it's telling the Industry blokes that she ain't giving up! And public pressure can possibly account for a movie getting done, eh?

Recently (since strike started) she's gone Gonzo over it. It's probably just related to her own schedule though, since she's finishing up her other projects (Namesake, AIDS). So next on her plate seems to be Shantaram. I'm looking forward to her information. She's been the best source of information so far. We just have to be careful that her messages are properly quoted in their sources. :)

I guess SAG ought to come up with some new information and names soon, but probably not until the Writer's strike ends.
That's my take on it anyways.

I hope your take on it is right.

I just can't put much stock in the accuracies of the reportings of the Bollywood press machines after that spin they put on Johnny demanding so much money that it shut the project down.

I hope you're right.

Irfan Khan! :snoopy

Well, it's not particularly sensational news so they have no reason to make this up. It hasn't come up on many news sites, but none of the new cast members are A-list stars, so that's probably why.

On that list the only names I know are Irfan Khan and Konkona Sen Sharma. She's a young actress and has received a lot of critical acclaim. She seems to do mostly less commercial projects, but has received a lot of attention despite that. I've only seen her in a small part in "Omkara", but I really liked her there. She definitely makes a lot of sense for this film.
I wonder if this means Bipasha Basu is out? Surely the only significant part for a young Indian lady is Kavita? Unless they plan on casting her as Prabaker's mother, but she's a bit young for that I think... (although I could imagine her doing an excellent job with that part - perhaps more than I can imagine her doing with Kavita)

I checked up Prabhu Deva on imdb, I think he does more choreography than acting and it seems a lot of his acting filmography consists of guest appearances as a dancer. So I wonder if that's how they're going to use him in Shantaram? Will he be doing the choreography as well?
The only film I know on Prabhu Deva's filmography (choreo not acting) is "Bombay (1995)" which is about the Bombay riots of 1992. It's told through the eyes of a mixed marriage (Hindu husband, Muslim wife). The kind of choreo and dancing that is in the film makes a lot of sense in Shantaram context. It has a rather more traditional feel to it than a mainstream Bollywood film would usually have (the protagonists move to Bombay from a small village). You can check out one of the dance numbers from the film to get a feel for it:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYrcsM7FXU
The other actors seem to do mostly supporting roles from what I can gather, some of them seem to do stuff in Kollywood (commercial Tamil language industry) rather than in Bollywood (commercial Hindi language industry). In fact Prabhu Deva's Bombay is more of a Tamil film than a Hindi one (though it mixes both languages).

So basically it seems like Mira is going after Indian actors and actresses who do good supporting parts and interesting art house projects, rather than the A-list stars (with the exception of Mr Bachchan of course). I wonder if that might have anything to do with the decrease in budget (personally I was expecting a few more A-list stars and the previous mention of Bipasha Basu for Kavita made a lot of sense as she's a far more commercial actress). The A-list Bollywood stars don't earn as much as the biggest Hollywood stars of course, but $1mln per film is not unusual AFAIK and I guess that's not the kind of money Warner Bros would spend lightly at this point.