Shekar Kapur invites Tim Burton to make film in India

May 16, 2010 IANS

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Internationally acclaimed Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur says he has invited Hollywood director Tim Burton, who specialises in dark and quirky themes, to scout for locations in India for a film.

"Tim Burton is a compassionate and gentle person and so eager to learn about other people and cultures. He is also completely fascinated by India. So I have invited him to come and see if there is something he would like to shoot in India," Kapur, 64, posted on his blog www.shekharkapur.com/blog.

Burton, 51, has wielded megaphone for movies like "Batman", "Batman Returns", "Plane of the Apes", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" and "Alice in Wonderland".

He is known for bringing magic realism out of the books onto the big screen.

"India is a country that accepts mythology and magic realism as an essential part of it's culture, as does Tim Burton in his filmmaking. It would be fascinating to see Tim Burton's visual take on some of our tradition folk tales," said Kapur.

Kapur is serving as a jury of the 63rd Cannes International Film Festival headed by acclaimed filmmaker Burton.

"It's very exciting to be on the Jury of the Cannes film festival. Especially when the Jury is headed by the man I affectionately (but also seriously) call 'the Salvador Dali of Cinema'," wrote Kapur.

He also attended a gala dinner inspired from Burton's works.

"For the first dinner with the jury, the chef had designed the dinner as an 'inspiration' from Tim Burton's movies! Everything looked like it was from the Mad Hatter's dining table (from 'Alice in Wonderland')," he posted.

"And while it was terrific looking and delicious, I kept waiting for the rice! After all what's a meal without rice and dal, or roti and dal?"