Hi I have been following Behindwoods' coverage on Elizabeth: the Golden Age especially Shekhar Kapur's direction and the music by A.R.Rahman along with Craig Armstrong.

Last evening during the special screening of this movie at the Irish Film Institute in Dublin I had the privilege of meeting director Shekhar Kapur. The movie is scheduled to release in UK and Ireland on November 2nd. But this was an exclusive premiere show followed by a Q&A session with the director. I luckily managed to get a ticket at the last minute for this event which was a complete sell-out. The audiences were allowed to interact with him after the screening was over. Most of the questions raised were regarding the script and the cast. I was also one among the lucky ones to get an opportunity to question Mr.Kapur. I asked him to share the experiences he had with A.R.Rahman while working on the music score for this movie. He introduced Rahman to the Irish audience hailing him as the Mozart of Madras and told the audience that he picked Rahman for his capability to produce melody easily just as Mozart did. There was also a mention about Rahman's musical roots and his successful collaboration with Scottish composer Craig Armstrong in this movie. I am still wondering why I had to ask this question as I am a die hard fan of Ilayaraaja and always argue with people who praise ARR, a lot. But still the background music was world class.

Another person asked Mr.Kapur how difficult it was for him to migrate from Bollywood to Hollywood and how both these film industries differ with each other? The director did agree that there was too much politics involved in his entry to Hollywood. But he quickly hinted that as a director when he says sound, action it is the same story in Hollywood as well. He also made an interesting remark that working in Bollywood is chaotic and it is more organized in Hollywood. He went one step further by adding that working in Hollywood is like shopping at a supermarket or a departmental store and working in Bollywood is like shopping at a bazaar.

The event finished after an hour long interaction with the audience. I tried my luck once again, this time asking the organizers of the event if they would allow me to have a snap with Mr.Kapur. What a surprise. They agreed and I got what I wanted. Thanks and Regards Mahesh Sundaresan maheshsundaresan@yahoo.co.in