Imtiaz Ali keen to cast Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone in a play

Imtiaz Ali is a product of the stage. The director traces his creative journey back to theatre, during his days with the Delhi troupe, Ibtida. The director is reportedly harbouring dreams of returning to the stage and plans to cast Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in a play. The director is currently shooting for the Anushka Sharma-Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, but has admitted to close friends that he would be interested in such a project. 

DNA newspaper reported that the project might take a couple of years to happen. Kapoor and Padukone share a comfortable equation with each other, even after their break-up. The chemistry between the two actors in films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Tamasha (2015) has been praised. Incidentally, Tamasha, directed by Ali, saw Kapoor play a storyteller who takes to the stage. Padukone played the character who is instrumental in inspiring Kapoor's character to realise his dream. 

Speaking in a recent interview to the daily Hindustan Times, Ali said, "Theatre has been a very important element in my life. It has taught me many things that I realise now, when I’m on the sets. I never worked towards being a director. I don’t know how it happened. It still surprises me that I am a film director. Basically, my life has been a series of incidents and accidents, and I am a film director by accident. From theatre, I moved to TV. But I kept steering through my career, not knowing where I was going. But cinema is the world I feel I belong to. I guess, they (theatre and TV industry members) didn’t like me (smiles)."

If it materialises, it might just be the boost Indian theatre needs. It might also give the actors a new challenge to adapt to.