Shabana, Nandita team up again for `Midnight`s Children`

Mumbai: After 11 years, Canada-based director Deepa Mehta is set to bring feisty actresses Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das together again for a screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie`s award winning 1981 novel "Midnight`s Children".

The last time they came together in Mehta`s 1998 "Fire" they created a stir as a lesbian couple. "Shabana and Nandita were magical in `Fire`," said Mehta who has also finalised Seema Biswas in the cast along with them. "These are my three absolute favourites. Enchanting enduring actors whom I`ve had the privilege of working with earlier. And Seema was absolutely resplendent in `Water`," Mehta said. Just how this cinematic history was mooted is a tale by itself that`s best left for Mehta to be recounted. "It was the simplest thing in the world. I`m aware the largest studios of Hollywood were trying for years to convince Salman to part with the filming rights for `Midnight`s Children` and he had refused them all. Salman and I have been friends for three years. "On Nov 4, (2008) Salman and I were having lunch in New York when I casually said, `Wouldn`t it be lovely to make a film out of `Midnight`s Children?`` And Salman replied, `Why don`t you do it?` As simple as that. Salman has seen my `Water` and loved it. So he feels I could do justice to his book," she said. Mehta will start working on the novel, an allegory about the blossoming of modern India, in 2010, right after she`s done with her other period epic "Komagata Maru" with Akshay Kumar. "Midnight`s Children" will be produced by Mehta`s life partner David Hamilton. Now the big question is, who plays the young Muslim protagonist Salim in "Midnight`s Children"? IANS