Looks like Kalpana Lajmi is getting desperate to make a good woman oriented movie with an A –list actress. And the star high up on her wish list is Deepika Padukone.
She has said, “We’re both descendents of the great Guru Dutt. Deepika and I are Saraswat Brahmins. Her family and mine can be traced back to Kashmir. We’re basically evicted Kashmiri Pundits who migrated to Bangalore. If you remember my uncle Guru Dutt (who was my mother painter Lalita Lajmi’s brother) and Deepika’s father Prakash Padukone are both settled in Bangalore. Deepika is definitely related to me. Though she doesn’t know it. But I hope she knows about me.”
Now this really sounds like a desperate filmmaker speaking.
Wonder if talks of this kind suits an experienced filmmaker like her
She’s isn’t sure whether Deepika would reciprocate enthusiastically or not as she thinks she’s a down-and-out filmmaker.
She adds, “I haven’t put a project together in the last three years because of various reasons, the main being finances which a filmmaker like me who suffers a double disadvantage of being woman.”
But she’s really hopeful about working with Deepika and maybe Deepika even getting R.K. Films to produce it.
Kalpana was impressed after watching Deepika in ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ and thinks that she possesses the old-world grace of Madhuri and Aishwarya which girls usually don’t have. So much so that she wants Deepika to play a politician in ‘Singhasan’ which had originally thought about making with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan,
As of now, apart from her career getting stuck Kalpana is also worried about the series of illnesses in her family- her father and mother followed by her guru and companion composer Bhupen Hazarika.
But she’s inspired by the success of Shyam Benegal who she considers her mentor and whom she assisted initially.
She says, “At the ripe old age of 74, Shyam Babu has made a hit film ‘Welcome To Sajjanpur’. He had to struggle for years to make this project come true. As for me, I’m so much his junior and still can’t get funds for my new film.”
Well, we just hope the dry spell for the talented and enthusiastic lady ends soon.
