Shekhar Kapur is planning an ‘Indian Harry Potter’, shares details

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has revealed that he is planning to make the ‘the Indian equivalent to’ the Harry Potter franchise. In a new interview, Shekhar said that people in India are ‘used to things that are otherworldly’. He also clarified that the project will ‘come out of India and not the West’. (Also Read | Shekhar Kapur reacts to India’s Oscar wins)

Talking about his unmade film Paani, Shekhar said that he wanted it to be ‘an Indian production’. He also said that at one point, he wanted to make the movie in Spanish. The director added that he ‘lost about five, six years of my life at that time’.

In an interview with Times of India, Shekhar said, “I wanted to make Paani as an Indian production. Because one of the things that I always felt was, Slumdog Millionaire, even though it made around $400 million worldwide, was not called an Indian film. I really wanted Paani to be an Indian film. I came back to India to make it, even though at one point, I was thinking of making it in Spanish. I had thought of setting it in Mexico City, because we have the same problems over there, too. The same confrontations and the culture is the same. But I lost about five, six years of my life at that time.”

He also added, “I am actually planning a project, which is kind of the Indian Harry Potter. I’m not making Harry Potter. But the Indian equivalent to it. Same genre. That genre of Harry Potter because I think in India, with the market we have, we are so used to things that are otherworldly. We’ve grown up with those kind of stories. I am now developing and probably will make a film franchise like Harry Potter, that comes out of India and not the West.”

Shekhar’s last directorial venture was What’s Love Got to Do with It, a romantic comedy film released last year. The film stars Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Lily James, Shazad Latif, Sajal Aly, Oliver Chris, Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza, Alice Orr-Ewing, and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. It won Best Comedy at the Rome Film Fest in October 2022.