Abhay Deol, Sonam Kapoor next in Ayesha

Abhay Deol will be next seen with Sonam Kapoor and Arunodaya Singh in the Hindi adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma.

Photo: Sonam Kapoor will star in Anil Kapoor's home production Emma

The character of Jane Austen’s Emma caught the fancy of Sonam Kapoor, and she asked her father Anil Kapoor to produce it. Emma will be directed by Rajshree Ojha, the director of Chaurahen (2007) and Yatna (2005). Needless to say, Sonam Kapoor will play Emma. God knows, she has the height for it.

The rest of the cast and crew of the movie have not been finalized.

In the meantime, Sonam Kapoor is happily promoting her forthcoming movie, Delhi-6. You can see her on every TV channel and magazines, the latest being the cover of Verve.

Abhay Deol, who has finally got a hit with DevD – despite fantastic performances in Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Manorama Six Feet Under, Socha Na Tha, Ahista Ahista all of which tanked at the box office – is moving base to New York. According to reports, he is also signing up for a welding and metal work course at the Arts Students League of New York.

Photo: Abhay Deol

He has been quoted as saying, “Melting metal at 60,000 degrees fahrenheit is very therapeutic. It’s as cathartic as living out the anguish of DevD. I was planning to take this time off too explore new territories for some time. But in Mumbai I was caught up in the never-ending chain of doing movies and promoting them.”

Nice to see that this Deol boy, who has always been unafraid in his choice of movies, is not stereotypical when it comes to his life choices either. And, I am glad he is not one of those smug “thinking actors” who insist they are consumed by acting.

Apart from Emma, Abhay Deol also has a Dibankar Banerjee- director of Khosla Ka Ghosla, and writer-director of Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! – project in the pipeline.

Abhay Deol was last seen in DevD, a modern take on Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s Devdas. DevD was written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, director of No Smoking and Black Friday. The movie also stars Mahi Gill who plays the role of Paro and Kalki Koechlin who plays Chandramukhi.

DevD has said to have raked in Rs 90 million in its opening weekend. As a longstanding fan of both Abhay Deol and Anurag Kashyap, I am for one, delighted with both DevD’s success and their vindication.