He is a master when it comes to literary adaptations but director Vishal Bhardwaj says translating Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight’s Children’ for Netflix is his most daunting project till now.
The filmmaker, who gave an Indian flavour to Shakespearean tragedies—‘Macbeth’ (Maqbool), ‘Othello’ (Omkara) and ‘Hamlet’ (Haider), is confident that ‘Midnight’s Children’, which has already been made into a film by Deepa Mehta, is best suited for the series format.
“All the adaptation and work I have done before is nothing compared to this. It is a beautiful piece of work and one of the best books I have ever read. I feel very blessed that I am given this chance but at the same time I am very scared. I hope I will be able to do justice to it,” Bhardwaj told.
The director said he met Rushdie after coming on board.
“Yes, I met him. He wanted to know my take on the adaptation. When I told him about my vision for his material, he was very happy. He said, ‘You are the right person because this vision is so unique to the book’,” he said.
Bhardwaj last directed ‘Pataakha’, about two warring sisters, which was a small project compared to his big budget, star-driven movies and the filmmaker said it was intentionally so.
“It was supposed to be a small film. I wanted to be very authentic. The story is about two sisters, a relationship that is rarely explored in films. That’s why I wanted to keep that mood and the pace of characters and story alive. Whether I have succeeded in that or not, I will come to know later because you get a perspective on your own work a little later,” he said.
Asked about working with Priyanka Chopra, the star of his two films ‘Kaminey’ and ‘7 Khoon Maaf’, Bhardwaj said, “Priyanka is my favourite person and we both are dying to work with each other. I hope we find the right subject to work on.”