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From stage to silver screen: Bollywood's FINEST adaptations
Movies have always owed a lot to the theatre -- from actors to technique, from storytelling processes to experimental radicalism, cinema borrows.
And some of the finest cinema comes from adapting material that has already been successful on stage.
With yet another Romeo and Juliet set to die in Issaq -- Manish Tewari's directorial next starring Prateik Babbar and Amyra Dastur as the star-crossed lovers in Benaras -- here's a look at ten notable adaptations that went from play to screenplay.
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OMG! Oh My God
A credited remake of the Australian comedy The Man Who Sued God, OMG also borrowed from hit Gujarati play, Kanji Virudh Kanji.
Made on a tight budget, Umesh Shukla's film was a huge hit.
10ml Love
Sharat Kapariya's adaptation of Shakespeare's delightful A Midsummer Night's Dream saw the forest fantasy transposed to a Punjabi wedding.
The results are hit and miss, but Rajat Kapoor and Rasika Duggal are awesome.
Life In A Metro
While fighting accusations that the Sharman-Kangna part of his three-story narrative was stolen from Billy Wilder's The Apartment, director Anurag Basu said it all came from a play called Chaabi he'd seen in his youth.
Waqt: The Race Against Time
Based on a Gujarati play Aavjo Vhala Fari Malishu, Vipul Shah's film saw Amitabh Bachchan play Akshay Kumar's father in a massively melodramatic story about fathers, sons and reality television.
The Last Lear
Decidedly not an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, Rituparno Ghosh's film took its inspiration from Utpal Dutt's acclaimed Bengali play, Aajker Shahjahan -- a play said to be semi-autobiographical, about the actor himself.
Omkara
Vishal Bhardwaj's mastery of cinema reached a zenith with this immaculately crafted adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello.
Saif, Konkona, Kareena, Ajay all shone, but none more than the words, rightfully given pride of place.
Aankhen
Vipul Shah struck blockbuster gold with this all-star adaptation of his own Gujarati play, Aandhalo Pato (which means Blindman's bluff).
It was a hit that marked an upswing in the careers of both Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan.
Maqbool
The world of Hindi cinema sat up and took notice when Vishal Bhardwaj followed up his quirky debut, Makdee, with this masterful and shadowy adaptation of the Bard's classic, Macbeth.
A dizzyingly ambitious film, this.
Angoor
Old, yes, but they don't get much better than this beautiful Gulzar take on Shakespeare's A Comedy Of Errors.
Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma are both in smashing form, and the film remains side-splittingly hilarious.