There has been much discourse around director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's adaptation of Karna over the recent past. A couple of years ago, Suriya said that he was in talks to star in the film. While Suriya's involvement in the film is unknown, Rakeysh recently spoke about the Karna adaptation in a conversation with Galatta Plus.
The filmmaker said that while the adaptation is on pause as of now, he has completed the screenplay for it and that AR Rahman has already composed five or six songs for it. Rakeysh also revealed that the film will hit theatres in two parts, similar to Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has been working on the project for six years now partly because it took him that much time to understand Vyasa's Mahabharat. Describing Vyasa's original version of the mythological epic as "dramatic," Rakeysh said that Vyasa is a "clever writer" who created a "beautiful story" full of "grey matter" that "manipulates you so well". The filmmaker interprets Karna not necessarily as the biological "son of sun" (Suryaputra) but as one who is "empowered by the solar power". Calling Karna one who is born out of wedlock, Rakeysh said the mythological character is a tragic figure neglected and abandoned right through his life. "He got adopted by people who were so-called 'low caste'. We cannot even use that word today," Rakeysh said, referring to Karna.
Speaking of caste, Rakeysh seemingly took a dig at the existence of an award named after Dronacharya for the best coaches in sports in India. "Dronacharya was the best teacher of all time, but he threw a person because he belonged to some other cast, and he would only teach the rich Kshatriya kings," Rakeysh explained. Eventually, the filmmaker, who celebrates the 20th anniversary of his film Rang De Basanti, drew a parallel between Karna's struggle against caste discrimination and historical issues such as social exclusion in cricket before the modern era.
Beyond Ramayana and Karna, there is also Aamir Khan with a plan to develop his own version of Mahabharat. There are exciting times ahead for film lovers and Indian mythology fans.