The Wall Street Journal reports, “Shekhar Kapur is probably best known for directing the biopic ‘Elizabeth’, which garnered numerous Oscar-award nominations in 1999. But his latest project, a science-fiction movie called ‘Paani’ (the Hindi word for water), is generating lots of preproduction buzz. The love story, set in a futuristic dystopian city in which the rich and poor are divided by their access to water, is thick with messages about the environment, poverty and privatization. The film is expected to hit cinemas by December 2012.”
In May 2010, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke alongside Kapur at a media conference on the film at the Cannes Film Festival in France. That June, the Ottawa Citizen reported, “Kapur calls it his ‘passion project’ and credits Barlow’s book Blue Covenant for giving him a major piece of inspiration. …Kapur found Barlow after meeting documentary maker Irena Salina and seeing her film Flow.” Kapur said, “I have been wanting to make this movie for a long time. Irena said ‘you have to read Maude’s book.’ Blue Covenant was the spark that coalesced the idea.”
On March 4, 2011, Kapur completed the script for the film.
The Wall Street Journal adds, “The film, tipped to be shot mostly in 3-D (will be) backed by an A.R. Rahman score (he won an Oscar for the score of “Slumdog Millionaire’). Mr. Kapur and Danny Boyle (also) of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ fame will co-produce the film, (which has) secured a budget of about US$35 million.” It has also been reported that Jill Bilcock (Moulin Rouge) will be the film’s editor. The actors for the film have not been cast yet, but Kristen Stewart of the ‘Twilight’ films has been rumoured to be involved in this project.