Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Shakespearean journey

The ace filmmaker is set to adapt ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the big screen

Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s last attempt at translating literature on screen with ‘Saawariya’ might have bombed (the film was an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story ‘White Nights’) but that doesn’t stop the filmmaker from trying again. And this time he takes the Vishal Bharadwaj path of adapting Shakespeare for the silver screen.

Sources say the 48-year-old’s latest desire is to adapt the evergreen ‘Romeo and Juliet’ for Bollywood. Though it was assumed that Sanjay’s next project would be the long-awaited ‘Bajirao Mastani’ or ‘Heera Mandi’ or ‘Padmavati’, a source close to the filmmaker revealed that these days Bhansali is obsessed with remaking ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

The story apparently has been set in Gujarat and might feature B’wood’s ‘Chammak Challo’ Kareena Kapoor and the ‘Ladies vs Ricky Bahl’ actor Ranveer Singh. It is also believed that Bhansali has already discussed the project with Bebo and is presently awaiting her reply. But Ranveer hasn’t been approached just as yet.

The source also added that Bhansali had already assembled his team and wants to start work on the project soon especially since his friend-turned-foe Ismail Darbar is also considering adapting the same play by Shakespeare.

In an earlier interview, Bhansali himself had stated that after ‘Saawariya’ and ‘Guzaarish’ he wanted to make a fun, colourful film. Now ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a passionate love story that ends on a tragic note so we don’t understand how Bhansali thinks it’ll be a fun subject to handle!