Big B has no clue about Shantaram

The adaptation of Gregory David Roberts’ 2003 novel permanently shelved.

MUMBAI:

Two of his much-talked about films have not come out yet – shedding light on them,  Amitabh Bachchan says shooting for Shoebite is complete but he has no clue about Shantaram.

“Shoebite was the idea that Percept (Percept Picture Company) first worked on, then UTV came into the picture and even Shoojit Sircar came on board. Then UTV said they have got some legal problem with the 20th Century Fox as they said this property belongs to them. So we had to tell them that we are through with the shooting.

“Now this matter is resting with UTV. I don’t know what the outcome is. From our side the work is over. Hope that the film gets released soon,” Big B told reporters here Wednesday when he was asked about the status of the two films.

Big B, who will host “Kaun Banega Crorepati 6”, was in Mumbai to unveil the ‘Hot Seat Aapke Shehar’ as part of the promotional activity of KBC, going on air September  7. ‘Hot Seat Aapke Shehar’ is a promotional van that will travel to various cities, including Rohtak, Bhopal, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Varanasi, Patna, Howrah, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Nagpur and Ahmedabad.

Talking about Shantaram, Big B said: “Shantaram was never put on floors. Mira Nair had come to me saying she wanted me to do this role... She has Johnny Depp and she was very excited about it. I agreed to do the role. Later she told me regretfully that we have abandoned this project. I don’t know what is happening with Shantaram now.”

Nair was attached to Shantaram, a big screen adaptation of Gregory David Roberts 2003 novel of the same name, but production was shelved a few years back. 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd, 2012.