Bloody Veer director Prashant Nair to reinvent vampire concept

Highlights

• Delhi in a Day director Prashant Nair, who is writing the script for Bollywood's first vampire film Bloody Veer, said he is trying to reinvent the supernatural concept to suit Indian audiences instead of just copying from Hollywood.
• The film is being produced by Siddharth Jain of iRock Media and will be directed by Heeraz Marfatia, a long time associate of Shekhar Kapur.
• "Bloody Veer is going to be India's first mainstream vampire film. It's a coming of age story, but it's extremely Bollywood - there are song, dance and action sequences. Instead of just trying to copy from the West, I am looking through Indian mythology and culture to reinvent the concept of vampire so that it works in India," Prashant told PTI.
• It was rumoured that Ranbir Kapoor would be playing the lead in the film, but Prashant said the casting process is yet to begin.
• "The script is almost done and we are planning to do some revisions close to production. We are just about to start the whole casting process," said Prashant.
• Meanwhile, the entrepreneur-turned-filmmaker is also busy working on his new film Umrika, the script of which was approved by the Screenwriters Lab held by Mumbai Mantra and Sundance Institute.
• "It's a comedy set in the eighties. It is one of the six chosen projects by the Mumbai Mantra-Sundance Screenwriters lab. Umrika is a French-German-Indian co-production. I am hoping to shoot it next year," he said.
• Born in India and raised in Europe, Prashant turned director with Delhi in a Day, a satirical take on the nouveau rich in Delhi and their relationship with their servants.
• "It's a humorous and satirical look at Delhi's privileged socialite kind of society and how they treat people who work for them, which I find is a troubling issue. It's about the portrayal of the lifestyle of this new rich, loud, lavish cross-section of the society, how they live and treat their servants," he said.
• The film, released to positive reviews on August 24, shows a Britisher who comes to explore India and stays with a Delhi family but eventually gets involved in the inner politics and hypocrisy.
• "It was shot entirely in Delhi. I am most familiar with this place since I spent quite a bit of time here. I personally feel that a certain part of Delhi is pretty flashy and over-the-top. That's the premise I set my film on." Despite being a first-timer, Prashant managed to rope in industry veterans like Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Victor Banerjee and Lilette Dubey to star in the film.
• "I am grateful that they agreed to do my film. They liked the script and were very open during the filmmaking. There are many new faces as well, most of them are from NSD, including the lead actress Anjali Patil. She is now starring in Prakash Jha's new film. I am very proud of her," said Prashant. The film has already been to various film festivals both in India and all over the world. It won Prashant the Directors Vision Award at the ninth edition of Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart, Germany.
• "It has been to 20-25 festivals. In India it was screened in MAMI and Kerala. Outside, it has been to New York, London, Hamburg and Stuttgart - a fair amount of festivals in US and Europe."