Natasha Hervatta
450 years since Shakespeare's (supposed) birthday. Here's a list of Bollywood films inspired by the Bard's works!
Dating back to 1935, Khoon ka Khoon was an adaptation of Hamlet. It was directed by Sohrab Modi, with Modi as Hamlet, Banu as Ophelia, Shamshadbhai as Gertrude, etc.
Based on A Comedy of Errors, Do Dooni Char has been directed by Debu Sen and stars Kishore Kumar, Tanuja and Iftekhar.
Another adaptation of A Comedy of Errors, Angoor (also being a personal favourite) was directed by Gulzar and starred Sanjeev Kumar, Moushumi Chatterjee, Deven Verma, Aruna Irani and more.
One of the many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, Ek Duuje Ke Liye was one of the most popular. Directed by K. Balachander and starred Kamal Hassan and Rati Agnihotri as the protagonists.
Another of the many adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, QSQT starred Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla and was directed by Mansoor Khan. If anyone tells you they didn't love Aamir Khan after watching this film, they're probably lying.
Maqbool, where Macbeth meets Godfather in the Mumbai of 2000s, is directed by Vishal Bhardwaj (one of my favourite directors) and stars Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Pankaj Kapur, Naseeruddin Shah.
Omkara is an utterly captivating adaptation of Othello by Vishal Bharadwaj, starring Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Konkona Sen and more. Saif Ali Khan's performance was stellar and is considered one of his best yet.
A Midsummer's Night Dream in a new avatar, 10ml Love directed by Sharat Katariya stars Neil Bhoopalam, Anusha Bose, Tisca Chopra, Rajat Kapoor, Purab Kohli, Koel Puri and more.
And yet another adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Ishaqzaade by director Habib Faisal stars Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, who share a forbidden romance while fighting for the political supremacy of their respective families.
And one more modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, Ram-Leela directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali with Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Krishna Singh Bisht, Supriya Pathak depicts the love, lust and the drama afterwards of the protagonists.
Vishal Bharadwaj completes his trilogy of Shakespeare adaptations after Maqbool and Omaka, with Haider starring Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon. It is an adaptation of Hamlet and has been praised and commended by viewers everywhere.
I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days. (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath)
