Rajat Kapoor: Won’t make film on S’peare, Vishal Bhardwaj does enough

Rajat Kapoor has adapted four of William Shakespeare’s dramas for stage but the actor-filmmaker says he is not keen to make any film on his works as he feels director Vishal Bhardwaj is making enough movies on the Bard.

Kapoor, 55, has brought ‘Hamlet’, ‘King Lear’, ‘Macbeth’ and ‘As You Like It’ on stage in his unconventional takes like ‘The Clown King’, ‘Nothing Like Lear’, ‘What’s Done, Is Done’ and’I Don’t Like It As You’ respectively.

On the film front, Bhardwaj has shown love for Shakespeare’s tragedies by successfully translating Macbeth (‘Maqbool’), Othello (‘Omkara’) and Hamlet (‘Haider’).

Kapoor says films and stage productions are two different things as what may work in a play may not click on the silver screen.

“I don’t really want to make a film (on Shakespeare’s works). Film scripts are very different from theatre productions. What works on stage may not work on screen at all. And anyway, Vishal (Bhardwaj) is doing enough Shakespeare so, I should not interfere with that,” Kapoor told PTI.

The ‘Kapoor and Sons’ actor says he never planned on doing so many stage adaptations of Shakespeare’s works but it just happened ever since he directed a play based on Hamlet in 2008.

“There was no plan on doing Shakespeare’s plays. I did Hamlet in 2008 and now we have done four plays. It just happened.”

Apart from theatre which keeps Kapoor extremely busy, the actor has starred in critically appreciated films like ‘Monsoon Wedding’, ‘Bheja Fry’ ‘Phas Gaye Re Obama’, ‘Midnight’s Children’, ‘Drishyam’, besides directing ‘Mixed Double’, ‘Mithya’ and ‘Ankohn Dekhi’.

Kapoor says he enjoys theatre and films as he finds both the creative mediums equally satisfying.

“Films have a different kind of joy and so does theatre.

The kind of cinema that I have made I have always had control.

So, I have always had the freedom to do what I want.”

Inputs by PTI

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