Kareena to reuinite with Chameli director, Sudhir Mishra

Avant-garde director Sudhir Mishra is about to start his dream project. For years he has nurtured the dream of doing his own take on Saratchandra Chatterjee's classic Bengali novel Devdas, the ageless tale of love loyalty and betrayal and self-destruction that has been treated in various eras by directors as diverse as Bimal Roy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Anurag Kashyap.

Sudhir's take on Devdas has been ready for eight years. He has now re-written the script and the film which goes on the floors shortly would be titled Har Khwahish Pe Dum Nikle.

Interestingly Sudhir intends to cast Kareena Kapoor in his film. Kareena and Sudhir Mishra had generated a sterling synthesis in Chameli. They were all set to come together again two years ago in Dhruv, the project to be produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhavani with Farhan and Kareena in the lead.

But the film got shelved.

When contacted Sudhir said, "Yes, I am making Har Khwahish Pe Dum Nikle next. I was actually finalizing another script as my next film. But I got stuck in it mid-way. So I looked at this other script which I had been nurturing for years. The time for doing my Devdas is now. As for the cast, it's too early to talk about whom I am will cast."

Sudhir says his take on Devdas would be distinctly Shakespearean.

"In fact it would be more Shakespeare than Saratchandra," admits Sudhir.

Har Khwahish Pe Dum Nikle has an interesting history. Sudhir Mishra initially planned to direct it for producer Pritish Nandy with Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangda and Lara Dutta as Devdas, Chandramukhi and Paro, respectively. The project later moved to Farhan under the title Dhruv with Farhan and Kareena in the lead.

Now Sudhir says he is all set to finally make the film.

"I have to get it out of my system. It's been swimming in my subconscious for too long," says Sudhir.

Incidentally Kareena was at one point, to be cast as Paro in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas.