OneIndia reports that Ayesha, starring Sonam Kapoor, is scheduled for an August release:
Anil Kapoor Films Company and PVR Pictures’ much awaited Sonam Kapoor-Abhay Deol starrer Aisha will be released on August 6, 2010. Aisha, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s famous novel Emma, is being produced by Ajay Bijli, Sanjeev K Bijli and Rhea Kapoor. The film is directed by Rajshree Ojha.
Besides Abhay and Sonam, the film also stars Cyrus Sahukar and Ira Dubey. Music of the film has been composed by Amit Trivedi while Diego Rodrigues is the director of photography (DOP).
ETA: Cinthia found this 4/9 India Express interview with director Rajshree Ojha, confirming the film’s post-production status. In the interview, Ojha explains that her “first director’s cut” of the film is done and that “it lies in the producers’ hands.”
Cinthia comments:
It is surprising to know that the project began in 2004, but she and
the scriptwright could not find a back-up production company because
it had female-centered plot.
At the end of the interview there some interesting details. For example:
“There are places where I’ve curtailed the role of certain characters,
like that of Emma’s friend Harriet Smith, or combined two characters
into one, like the Woodhouse sisters.”
I find it intriguing, what does she mean by ‘curtailed’? Does it mean
that the Harriet character has been completely deleted or her role’s
importance has been diminished? And what about the Woodhouse sisters
being combined in only one character? I hope it is a confusion and she
meant Mrs. Weston and Isabella.
The presentation copy of Emma originally gifted to Jane Austen’s good friend Anne Sharp (and likely real-life model for Mrs. Weston) garnered £325,000 – or $489,747 – in a transaction announced this week (April, 2010). Christiaan Jonkers of British-based Jonkers Rare Books purchased the copy at auction in 2008 for considerably less (£180,000/$271,294). For more discussion…
Friends of American Maritime History: our national flagship, the legendary ocean liner SS United States is in grave danger of being sold for scrap — an unacceptable fate for this great symbol of American achievement. From 1952 to 1969 the ship was the fastest, greatest ship in the world, transporting American presidents, movie stars, business and military leaders, and foreign heads of state. Sadly, she has fallen out of the limelight and has passed through the hands of a variety of owners, all unable to restore her to a rightful place of dignity.
The SS United States Conservancy, a national non-profit organization, has been working hard to “Save Our Ship” for the past five years. We are rapidly running out of time, however. We have been in touch with the ship’s current owners, The Genting Group/Norwegian Cruise Line, and know they are unable to maintain the ship in her current berth in Philadelphia. Please help us establish a public-private partnership to re-purpose the ship as a stationary attraction while we continue working with government officials to homeport the ship in a large U.S. city.
Here’s the Conservancy’s latest fundraiser commercial – please pass along the good word, even if you don’t have money to contribute. If you loved “Bon Voyage” with Fred MacMurray…if you think Hotel Queen Mary was a great idea…if you give a crap about human history and technological milestones and all that is good and right about civilization…help the Big U!
Remember, Austenprose.com is presenting a group read of Jane Austen’s unfinished Sanditon, starting tomorrow – March 15! The Ides of March! Join Laurel Ann and the gang for some fun discussion of the novel and Regency-era seaside culture.
And now I feel like I should be quoting Ovid or something on the ascention of Julius Caesar to the heavens as a star. Yay, emperor cultism.
Anyway. I’ve also got a roundup of articles pertaining to Michael Bloom’s stage adaptation of Emma, which premiered last month at the Cleveland Playhouse in Ohio. It’s running now at the Drury Theatre through March 21:
Hey #emma_pbs fans! Unofficial Northanger Abbey group chat on Twitter during Masterpiece Classic on Sunday! 9pm ET start… 😀 Laurie and I will be there!
