Bhardwaj wants to cast PeeCee in Twelfth Night film
Filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj has worked with a gamut of ace actors ranging from Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Pankaj Kapur to Irrfan and Tabu. But, Bhardwaj says that with actor Priyanka Chopra, he shares a special relation. “Ek toh she’s a huge star, vo toh sab ko pata hai par she’s a very real person. When you are with her, you don’t feel that Priyanka is a star. Mujhe lagta hai Priyanka dost hai (I feel Priyanka is my friend). Matlab uske sath yaaron wali baat hai,” he says. The two have worked together on Kaminey (2009) and 7 Khoon Maaf (2011). And now Bhardwaj wants to work with her again. “Priyanka is now a huge international star; I met her 3-4 times in New York. But she’s still the same, and we’re looking forward to work with each other. Most probably I’ll do my [adaptation of, Shakespeare’s] Twelfth Night with her,” says Bhadwaj who has earlier made a trilogy on Shakespearean works -Maqbool (2003), Omkara (2006) and Haider (2014).
At present, he’s working on his film Chhuriyaa with actors Sanya Malhotra and Radhika Madan, and admits that there’s a hidden benefit to work with actors who are from Northern parts of the country. “Dilli aur North se jo actors aate hain unki Hindi bahut achchi hoti hai (Actors from Delhi and north India have a good hold on Hindi). Woh at least Devnagri mein padte hai, nahi to logon ne to Hindi ko bhi Roman mein padna shuru kar diya hai,” says the filmmaker.
Has he ever sent his actors to Delhi to improve their Hindi? “Yes, a lot of people. But [who] that I shouldn’t say (laughs).”