Working in Mumbai on “Slumdog Millionaire,” clearly made a huge impact of director Danny Boyle.
Yesterday, we noted that Boyle bought the rights to “Maximum City” nonfiction memoir, travel writing and socio-political analysis of the people of Mumbai and today ScreenDaily reports on two more possible India-based collaborations. In what capacity though, seems to be unclear.
Boyle could team up with India’s well-celebrated director Shekhar Kapur (“Elizabeth” and its sequel, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”) on a project called, “Paani (Water),” that Boyle is so apparently gung-ho to do he’s trying to convince Kapur to delay another film.
All of it sounds like early days though. “We are looking at a potential collaboration,” Kapur said. “We are at a creative stage right now and there is nothing concrete yet.” The project is apparently about a future Mumbai where water is immensely scarce and the culture is divided into two casts systems called “haves” and “have-nots.”
Another potential collaboration is with Anurag Kashyap (“Dev D,” “No Smoking, “Black Friday”), though this leading Indian director quashed rumors that Boyle is producing his upcoming film, “Bombay Velvet.” “[Danny and I] have just talked about working together – in what capacity I don’t yet know. We will discuss this when he comes back in July. At the most I might collaborate on something with him.”
Could Boyle just act as a producer or executive producer to these projects? Could be, and neither of them seem to be immediate. The quest to find out what exactly is Boyle’s next directorial effort continues…