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MUZAFFAR LOOKS FOR A H'WOOD ACTOR FOR HIS SUFI MOVIE
By Naresh Kumar
In The News
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Muzaffar Ali's is a versatile personality from designer, poet, artist, and filmmaker to a politician. Best known in Bollywood for his extravaganza 'Umrao Jaan', Ali is in making a film on the life and works of the famed 13th century Persian poet, Mevlana Jalaludin Rumi. The poet's art, poetry and movies have traces of sufism, which negates a lot of ill feelings and confusion in our lives and helps in unlocking a huge amount of creativity, according to Muzaffar Ali. He is a passionate filmmaker who thinks that films bring out the best in him. He considers it a challenge. Being a man of discipline, he is determined to search for perfection in his work.
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Talking about his movie on Rumi, Ali says Rumi has always been a subject of great interest. Rumi is an icon of peace as his poetry is all about love and surrender in today's world full of hatred and intolerance. Rumi is relevant to India as his poetry made a deep impact on Indian philosophers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. His other works like Mathnavi, a compilation of verses, and Diwan-e-Shams, a collection of ghazals, are very popular too. For instance, Bulle Shah, who's affected every Punjabi's life, Ali adds.
The film will deal with Rumi's message, his poetry and the rich culture of the period in which he lived. Since Rumi was an international figure, the movie will be made in English. However, it will be dubbed in Hindi also. Kabir Helminsky, a Polish-born American scholar, who has studied Rumi and his poetry, has agreed to write the script. The sets for the film will be made in India, but most of it will be shot in Turkey. Ali is leaving for Turkey soon as he will commence shooting in September. Ali insists that actor in the role of Rumi must feel like Rumi did. It is going to be a very intense role, and only a Hollywood actor will be best suited to do it. So Ali is trying to rope in Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. However, he has not sounded them yet because the script is yet to be ready. Interestingly, for the role of Shams, who is very mischievous, Ali is looking for an Indian face.
The movie may have a trace of 'Umrao Jaan' as far as the costumes are concerned. Since it is a period film of the 13th century when Turkey was at its full glory, the costumes of that time need to be fantastic. According to some experts, these costumes may cost a huge sum and may take about a year for getting them stitched. The movie is likely to cost more than $ 10 million. It may even be double. However, the funding isn't a problem as Ali claims that several global institutions have already shown interest in the film. The Ford Foundation has taken the initiative and provided the initial funding for the film.
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