FANTASTIC NEWS for Shahid-Sonam fans

N Chandra wants Shahid and Sonam for his next film Fire & Ice

By Subhash K. Jha, September 10, 2009 - 14:41 IST

The maverick filmmaker N Chandra is a lonely man today. He has recently completed a script on an intense passionate romantic story between a boy from a broken home and a girl from a well-to-do family.

He has named the film Fire & Ice and would like to cast Shahid Kapoor opposite his old friend Anil Kapoor's daughter Sonam in it.

Alas! The doors to the gen-next stars are closed to N Chandra.

"I thought the doors would re-open for me after Yeh Mera India. But sadly, not too many people saw it. It was a film that I did in a completely contemporary language. There is a belief that I haven't kept up with the times, that I'm a spent force. I may have made Ankush, Pratighaat and Tezaab in the past. But that was then. I don't follow contemporary cinema's language. I made Yeh Mera India in a very contemporary European style. The cameraman was an American."

Now, in Fire & Ice, Chandra claims to use a form of narration never used before. "It's non-linear and in a way never seen before. It's contemporary. I need a particular kind of personality for the two main parts."

Getting Sonam should be less difficult for Chandra than getting Shahid. After all Sonam's father, Anil Kapoor, teamed up for one of his best films Tezaab with Chandra.

"But that was in the past. Things have changed. This is a new generation, a new era in filmmaking. Everyone has their own favourites," says Chandra, hastily adding. "Anil and I are still very close friends.'