Film to tell love story about water Activist, filmmaker hope project will raise awareness about precious commodity
BY CHRIS COBB, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN JUNE 7, 2010 - STORY <javascript:void(0);> - PHOTOS ( 1 ) <javascript:void(0);> [image: Canadian activist Maude Barlow and Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur have teamed up on Paani, a mainstream movie that highlights issues surrounding the world's water supply.] <javascript:void(0);> Canadian activist Maude Barlow and Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur have teamed up on Paani, a mainstream movie that highlights issues surrounding the world's water supply. *Photograph by: *Photo by Andreas Rentz, Getty Images, The Ottawa Citizen Maude Barlow is going Bollywood. The veteran Canadian activist and internationally-renowned campaigner against creeping corporate control of the world's dwindling fresh water supplies, has won the admiration of Indian movie director Shekhar Kapur and the prospect a blockbuster world stage for her cause. Kapur, one of Bollywood's most acclaimed directors, attracted the international spotlight for his two English-language period movies Queen Elizabeth 1 and the Academy Award-winning sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age, both starring Cate Blanchett. The first made her an international star. In November, Kapur starts shooting Paani, a love story about water -- Paani is the Hindi word for water. Kapur calls it his "passion project" and credits Barlow's book Blue Covenant for giving him a major piece of inspiration. The movie, set three decades from now in Mumbai, asks the same fundamental question that Barlow has been asking for years: "What happens when the water runs out?" Kapur found Barlow after meeting documentary maker Irena Salina and seeing her film Flow. "I have been wanting to make this movie for a long time," Kapur said. "Irena said 'you have to read Maude's book.' Blue Covenant was the spark that coalesced the idea." Barlow says she's thrilled at the prospect of working on the movie and Kapur has asked her to be an adviser -- to help him keep the serious message from getting lost. "I introduced him to what's happening with the privatization and corporate control of water and the struggle to keep it public," she said. "He told me that I had given him a big piece in the puzzle. He wants Paani to be more than a science fiction film but one that is about the true place we're headed to if we don't change course." For Barlow and other water activists the prospect of a mainstream movie devoted to their cause is major boost. "It's a whole other vehicle and whole new venue for telling the story," said Barlow "We're hoping to reach a whole new audience with Paani -- people who think water comes from a tap or a plastic bottle. Lots of people are blissfully unaware of this as an issue. So getting a movie made by the best of the best is really exciting for us." Kapur says he has been thinking about making a water-related movie for a dozen years. "It's difficult to know where it started," he said. "A rural Indian politician once said: 'The people in the cities, in one flush of their toilet, let go as much water as rural families get in a whole day.' So that triggered it. "And I have a friend on the 20th floor of a building in an upscale area of Mumbai and he would take a shower for hours. Alongside this upscale area are slums where you can see 30 or 40 women and little girls lining up for the water tankers to come. And the water tankers are charging 100 times more than they should.' Paani, which is being partly funded by the European crystal and optical company Swarovsky, is an old fashioned love story between a young man and woman who live in distinctly separate worlds -- she the daughter of a water firm owner in the Upper City where the wealthy live with plenty of water to spare. He lives in the lawless Lower City, a waterless slum run by lawless gangs. "Before I created the love story," said Kapur, "I thought about what kind of world we will be living in. I wanted to create a city that is representative of the whole world. My lower city is the portion of the real world that has got left behind." Kapur wants Paani to be an independently-funded movie. "The Hollywood studio system tends to iron out a movie to take all the wrinkles out," added Kapur, "but I think that with certain films, what actually works are the wrinkles. So I have tried very hard to keep it out of the studio system because this is a film about people living with jagged edges." But he doesn't apologize for using Hollywood's favourite cliché. "The great thing about love," he said, "is that it is not only the greatest cliché in the world it is the most natural, attractive and normal cliché. The audience identify with the relationships they see on screen." But the message will be clear, he added. "What do you do when 20 million people are thrown together and they are running short of water. Where do they go? Those who are powerful will eventually start to protect their water with arms." Kapur has written the first draft and the script is now in the hands of British playwright David Farr. Kapur has some heavy hitters on his side -- his friend and Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle is a co-producer. A.R. Rahman, who wrote the music for Slumdog, will write for Paani and John Myhre the Academy Award winning designer (Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha) is also signed up. The male lead will be Indian superstar Hrithik Roshan with Kristen Stewart rumoured to be in line to play his love interest. © Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/movie-guide/Film+tell+love+story+about+water/3121515/story.html -- - Regards ~ ~ A.R.Rajib ~ ~
