After 3 long years, The Blue Umbrella finally opens

Mumbai: Waiting in the wings for three years since it was completed, filmmaker Vishal Bharadwaj's new film, very simply titled The Blue Umbrella will finally open on August 10.

In these three years though, this children's film has travelled to film festivals across the world and earned itself a buzz of sorts.

More excited than fans of the filmmaker is the protagonist of the movie, 14-year-old Shreya Sharma that The Blue Umbrella finally has a release date.

“Of course, I am really happy. I used to call UTV and ask when is the film releasing, when is the film releasing. I used to surf the net and used to find out when is it releasing. So, now at last it’s releasing. I am very happy,” said Shreya.

Based on a story by Ruskin Bond, the film also features Punkej Kapur in an important role, and it's a performance that's unlikely to go unrewarded.

For the director, incidentally, the biggest challenge in bringing this story to the screen, involved finding the right umbrella.

“In Thailand, there is a small village where they make all kind of umbrellas. We went there and got our umbrella designed from there,” said Bharadwaj.

The celebrated director of Omkara and Makdee had once promised that every alternate film of his would be a children's film. It's a promise he's hoping to stick to.

“So far I have kept it: two out of four. But the future nobody knows. May be I will make few more films for children,” said Bharadwaj.

In a country where sensible films for children come few and far between, one can only hope Bharadwaj never forgets his promise.

And if he does, we're here to remind him of it.

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