Mumbai, April 1 Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur revealed that the Bollywood-themed musical “Bombay Dreams” was born out of “one chance” remark to English composer and impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Shekhar took to Instagram, where he shared a picture posing with A.R. Rahman and Lloyd Webber. The photograph was taken at the world announcement of the project.
“Life has been one huge adventure. But how does adventure happen unless you actively open yourself to the adventure of life ? And to open yourself to adventure you have to fight the greatest human failing of all. The addiction to certainty. The addiction to control…”
“Bombay Dreams was born of one chance remark to Andrew Lloyd Webber .. out of which this picture was taken at the world announcement of the project .. at a party in Mumbai’s iconic Taj Mahal Hotel... and where A R Rahman and Andrew Lloyd Webber played together on the same piano .. creating music on the go… One chance remark .. led to the first ‘Bollywood’ musical on the West End in London and Broadway in New York. (sic).”
“Bombay Dreams” music was by A. R. Rahman, lyrics by Don Black and the book by Meera Syal and Thomas Meehan, originally produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. The London production opened in 2002 and ran for two years. The musical was later produced on Broadway in 2004.
The story of “Bombay Dreams” centers around Akaash, a young man from the slums of Bombay who dreams of becoming the next big star in Bollywood. Fate steps in when a rich lawyer and his fiancée, an aspiring documentary filmmaker, arrive to prevent the demolition of Akaash's slum.
Akaash falls in love with the lawyer's fiancée, Priya, who happens to be the daughter of a famous Bollywood director. The story also deals with the change of name from Bombay to Mumbai and the identity issues that this raises.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor