Vishal Bharadwaj’s Rangoon with Saif, Shahid, Kangana

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Rangoon is a dream Vishal Bhardwaj has been nurturing for the last seven years. Now, Kangana Ranaut will join Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor in a Casablanca-like love triangle set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

Haider, Vishal’s Indianised adaptation of Hamlet set in Kashmir, which bagged five National Awards gave him the power he needed to make this film which he describes as Moulin Rouge meet Saving Private Ryan.

“It’s my most expensive film to date and will be my most musical,” Vishal told Mirror.

Talking about the subject he explains how it will be an eye-opener on a chapter of history that many of us are completely unaware of. “If you visit a cemetery in Imphal, Manipur, you will see the graves of so many young soldiers who lost their lives in the Second World War. And the dark irony is that Indians were killimg Indians because some of these soldiers fought for the Brtish army against Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army in Rangoon,” he explains, adding that the subject has been with him for a while now and he’s been working on the script waiting for the right cast.

Just before the release of Haider he had planned to roll with the sequel of Kaminey next, with Shahid in the lead. But, as he points out, he can make Kaminey 2 two years from now but he can’t lose this opportunity to launch his dream project. “I’m looking forward to reuniting with Saif and Shahid who I’ve worked with earlier in Omkara and Kaminey and Haider. And Kangana with whom it’ll be a first,” he smiles.

The two met recently in Paris where, as the filmmaker had told Mirror (March 12), Kangana took him out for dinner. “She served me the most expensive wines and I’m still intoxicated,” he chuckles. “She’s a brilliant actress and though that night itself we had agreed to work together, I hadn’t been sure about my next project then. She was always my first choice for Rangoon but till I could offer it to her, I didn’t want to talk about it because I was afraid kissi ki nazar na lag jaye. I’m sure we will challenge each other as we approach this cinematic journey together.”

25 Responses to “Vishal Bharadwaj’s Rangoon with Saif, Shahid, Kangana”

  1. Master:

    Shahid, Saif, Kangana and Vishal Bharadwaj and backdrop of World War II…This looks very interesting. Looking forward to it.

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    • Interesting for sure. Barring Saif I don’t find the cast very much to look forward to though Kangana’s in the zone right now.

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      • Kangana is the biggest star here Satyam and also the best actor. She is Aamir and Akshay combined.

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        • Why not add Brando and Bogart to the mixture?

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        • In terms of foolish-lines-per-day you might be going for the record books..

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        • A lot of people underestimate Kangana a lot. A news which is a story about her bagging a pivotal role – one heroine, two hero deal…. Is being projected as Shahid’s solo project.
          Fans will remain fans always. Satyam.

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      • I will take it that you haven’t seen Haider yet (have you?!) because Shahid was simply fantastic in it. And while he did get the usual complements and platitudes, he deserved far more for this IMO.

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        • I did see the first 20 min, have to finish it, it was quite gripping in that portion. To be honest I’ve never found him extraordinary anywhere though a perfectly likable screen presence. Just no gravitas whatsoever. In this context one of the huge problems with Bombay cinema after the early 80s has been the inability to make the right casting decisions more often than not. This applies to the stars but equally to the lesser parts. You can’t really put a tangible number on just how much a film becomes richer with the right supporting cast or even bit parts let alone stars. Specially over the last 15 years or so when some more interesting films have been made a lot have been ruined just by bad casting. this is not even always about getting the poor actor but the wrong one. Much as many great films (not just in India) have perfect actors in them who are not necessarily great actors otherwise. They might be fine in those parts (which is again about the casting) or they might be rather good actors who are phenomenal for those parts. Even in very commercial films you have to be sensitive to this dimension. And the best current example is of course Irrfan in Piku. He’s totally crucial to this film and yet it would have been so easy to cast some sort of star in his part. The right casting often involves making counterintuitive decisions. These add to a film’s surprise. On the other hand you do business-as-usual in this sense and even the better film is weighed down by the blandness of obvious casting choices. Not saying Haider has that problem but Shahid would never have been my choice for Hamlet. Now it’s true that someone like VB faces limitations in terms of who he can get in general and who he has to cast to keep the project minimally viable. But a certain discipline is once again absent in Bombay filmmakers, even the more interesting ones a lot of times. Because if you don’t get the right actor for a central part in a somewhat different film you shouldn’t go ahead with the project. There are some compromises that are understandable, some less so.

          Getting back to the point about actors I’ll just repeat myself.. I am never very fascinated by ‘competence’ in an actor. That is expected! What I like is the actor who surprises one way or the other. He or she doesn’t have to be the finest one around but unpredictable. When you watch such an actor on screen you don’t see his or her responses coming a mile away. At least in important parts. Similarly the responses are also not part of a more general archive in this sense and easily relatable to the same degree.

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        • I usually don’t skip good movies but yes Haider somehow got missed.
          I have always held Shahid in high regards even before Haider. He is a hardworking star.
          However my only point is that this news is more about Kangana as I think she is the protagonist in the story. The announcement coming soon after TWMR is declared a Blockbuster makes it even better for her.

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        • I did not mind the comparison. Kangana has become like Salman Khan. Very lucky and very popular. While aamir and akshay have to work hard, very hard.

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  2. Shahid is on a roll. What a line up he has got.

    Satyam, if not the whole movie, do yourself a favor, and just watch the Bismil Bismil song. Shahid is absolutely spectacular in it.

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  3. Another pseudo film from a pseudo director for pseudo fans. Hope it is a flop.

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  4. AamirsFan Says:

    When was the last time when a film makers ‘dream project’ didn’t end up into a nightmare? I do like the WWII back drop. It is my favorite era because of all the bravery shown by many men and women of that time. Decent casting too.

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    • All new projects are always dream projects 🙂
      Why even call dream project if it is not doing something which hasn’t been done in terms of budget, production or star cast..

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      • But Sajid Khan never says his project is a dreamy one! At the most he says it is for the brain dead. When he tried to dream, Himmatwala flopped miserably.

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  5. Atlast Vishal left Shakespeare in peace! Looks interesting but it will be quirky as usual.

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  6. All three look very fair and can be mistaken for afghans, caucasians, mexicans. Truly international!

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  7. There is something quite quite insinuating (?), the last paragraph. Or am I the only one reading a different meaning..

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