Suresh (he, the one that got kissed by Cate Blanchett) laid out my favourite shirt. It’s a yellow shirt that does not fade, and crumples in a way that speaks of casualness and not shabbiness, and it’s so loose that I can slump around anywhere and it will hide my body posture. Plus every time I wear it people say “hey, you look great and so healthy”. As a director I know that is just the bright yellow reflecting on my skin to create an illusion.
\nSo I save this particular shirt for special occasions.
\nWhich it was not today. Just one of those days where I was going to drudge around complaining to myself about not believing in the scene I just wrote for Paani. I did not get goose flesh, I did not shed tears, I did not get angry, so just convinced myself that 50% of all great films too, are just connective tissue between moments of honesty,
\nSo just as I was going to save the yellow shirt for a better occasion, I thought, perhaps it was placed there for a reason ? I mean why did Suresh pick this shirt. What did he know about the events of the day that I did not. Or maybe he did not. Maybe there was a special reason that yellow shirt lay there, staring at me, saying
\n“you have a Destiny today, wear me and you shall know it”.
\nIs there an event that calls me, and the yellow shirt a portal to a whole another experience that is already there ? A door that opens every moment in our lives and we either walk through it or not ? Can something as insignificant as the colour of the shirt you wear lead you to an existing experience, or am I causing it by thinking and believing in it. Whichever. I wore the yellow shirt.
\nNo one thought I was looking great. They did not have to. I believed it. Optimism filled the air around me and I smiled. People looked around and thought “why is Shekhar Kapur smiling at us”. I sat and it suddenly came to me. Something I have been wanting to do for long. Very long.
\nI picked the phone and called my agent and said. I want to speak to Christoph Waltz, the amazing actor that won the Oscar for his performance in ‘Inglorious Basterds’. I must have sounded passionate, the kind of passion that comes from optimism and belief. And so that evening I spoke to Christoph and pitched him Paani. I told him the story and the world of Paani. I told him about the character I wanted him to play. And he said he loved it. And we decided to meet to see how we can work it out etc.
\nThat evening I wrote the troubled scene in Paani. I had a great actor in mind so it suddenly got easier. Reluctantly I took off the shirt and put it the laundry at night. Maybe it will come back through the wash unexpectedly again, and I will walk through another portal !
\n‘break a blade of grass and you alter the universe” says a Buddhist saying. In this case it was “wear a yellow shirt”
\nshekhar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suresh (he, the one that got kissed by Cate Blanchett) laid out my favourite shirt. It’s a yellow shirt that does not fade, and crumples in a way that speaks of casualness and not shabbiness, and it’s so loose that I can slump around anywhere and it will hide my body posture. Plus every time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paani"],"yoast_head":"\n