Mira Nair, the New York-based director of the 2001 film Monsoon Wedding is developing the exotic family drama for the stage.
Nair told the Times of India she plans to create a Broadway musical of Monsoon Wedding, the story of the arranged marriage of a modern Indian woman and a young man living in the U.S.
Mira Nair, shown receiving a tribute award at the 17th Annual Gotham Awards in New York Nov. 27, will direct Monsoon Wedding for the stage.
(Evan Agostini/Associated Press)
"I can finally reveal that I will be directing a three-act stage version of Monsoon Wedding," she said in an interview with The Times of India Friday.
The songs from the movie are to be combined with new musical numbers to create a colourful stage production, to be directed by Nair and produced by the same team as 2002's Hairspray.
She has promised two of the big stars of the film will be involved in the stage version.
The huge, chaotic and expensive wedding depicted in the film is complicated by the romantic entanglements and doubts of both bride and groom and subplots involving the rest of their extended families.
Nair's work has been notable for its crossover appeal, as she has cultivated both Western and Indian audiences.
It is believed to be the first time an Indian movie has been developed into a musical stage production, though Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty brought Miss Bollywood to the London stage earlier this year.
Nair said she got the idea of directing a musical version of Monsoon Wedding about four years ago, but has since been busy with other films, including Vanity Fair and her most recent film project, Namesake.
Namesake, recently released in London, is about an Indian family's assimilation into American culture.
Now that film is ready for commercial release, "all my concentration is on the musical," Nair said.
The name of the theatre was not released.
Nair's next film, Shantaram, starring Johnny Depp, is to start filming next February, but Nair said it has been delayed because of the Hollywood writers' strike.
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