New Delhi: Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Academy Award-winning composer AR Rahman are reuniting for Masoom: The New Generation, a contemporary reimagining inspired by Kapur’s 1983 classic Masoom. Besides composing the music, Rahman will also co-produce the film with Kapur.
The two have worked together on multiple projects, including Elizabeth – The Golden Age (2007) and the stage musicals Bombay Dreams (2002) and Why? The Musical (2022).
Masoom: The New Generation will explore evolving ideas of “identity, family, love, and migration through a modern lens while retaining the emotional core that made the original film resonate across generations.”
“For a long time, I’ve felt that the themes of Masoom deserved to be revisited through the lens of today’s world. Families, relationships, identity; these ideas have evolved so much, and cinema must evolve with them,” Kapur said in a press statement. “Rahman has always had the rare ability to create music that speaks directly to the soul of a story and its audience. Having him as both composer and creative partner on this journey makes it even more meaningful.”
Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi have agreed to come on board for the project. The New Generation will also star Manoj Bajpayee, Nithya Menen, and Kapur’s daughter, Kaveri Kapur.
Currently in pre-production, Masoom: The New Generation is slated to commence production later this year, with a worldwide theatrical release planned for 2026.
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A bumpy start
Today, Masoom is regarded as a classic but it had a bumpy start. Despite eventually emerging as a box-office hit, the film had a poor start, leaving director Kapur convinced that his filmmaking career was over before it had started.
“We finished the movie before we showed it to anyone and before we sold a single part of it. That was the pleasure of making films in those days. Distributors loved the movie when they saw it. But when it was released, the halls were completely empty,” Kapur wrote in an Instagram post.
The filmmaker remembered attending the film’s first-day, first-show screening, only to find an almost deserted theatre.
“I went to the cinema hall and it was completely empty, except for me and a young couple sitting in a dark corner who seemed to have no interest in the film at all,” he recalled.
Convinced that Masoom had failed, Kapur began contemplating a return to his former profession as a chartered accountant. But within a day, everything changed. The next morning, Kapur received a call from his uncle, legendary filmmaker Vijay Anand, who asked if he could arrange tickets for the family because the show was sold out.
“I said, ‘What?’ It was only Thursday. I rushed to the theatre and saw long queues outside waiting for tickets,” Kapur wrote.
To this day, the filmmaker remains puzzled by the film’s dramatic turnaround.
“Imagine if that Thursday had never happened. There may have been no Masoom, and I might have gone back to being a chartered accountant,” he added.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)