Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra at Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hai

"SRK is like family." - Morani

After romancing the western audiences with the Broadway style musical Miss Bollywood starring Shilpa Shetty, the Morani Brothers (Cineyug) are ushering in the first Bollywood musical titled City of Dreams in India with Ashish Gidwani Productions. The musical will premiere on June 13 in Mumbai.

For the project, budgeted above a crore, big names from tinseltown including Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra and Vidya Balan have been roped in.

Co-producer and director Mohammad Morani says, “We’ve been in the industry for 25 years. We’ve taken musical tours abroad. Now, we want to introduce this genre in India.”

According to Nasreen aka Lucky Morani (wife of Mohammed Morani), who is playing the female protagonist; the storyline revolves around the struggles that a small-town aspirant goes through before establishing a foothold in Bollywood. She says, “It is a marriage of theatre and Bollywood. The storyline has
Bollywood as the backdrop. We are weaving it with the best of dance-drama.”

The stars will be acting as narrators. Though they will not perform live, their parts will be presented as audio-visuals. Roping in SRK was easy, admits Morani. He says, “SRK is like family. The script is similar to what he went through during his teething days in Bollywood. Since SRK has a strong theatre background, he will do the starting sequence. The male protagonist in the play is loosely based on SRK and has been named King Kapoor. To represent the Kapoor dynasty we are in talks with Ranbir Kapoor.”

Nasreen also adds, “Bollywood is a world of mystery. A common man wants to know about what goes on behind the scenes. Our musical is a portrayal of that. The big budget for the musical has been primarily channeled into sets and costumes to give it a larger-than-life feel.”

Co-producer Ashwin Gidwani reveals that the musical will go abroad next year. It will tour the Gulf, Far East, Germany, UK and the US. The sets have been designed by Umang Kumar (Saawariya and Black fame).

Sujata Chakrabarti, DnaIndia