Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 5, 2014)

On March 20, Mirror broke the news that the Nawab of Pataudi would play the Count in a desi adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas' 1844 literary classic, The Count of Monte Cristo. The film about love, treachery and revenge was to be directed by Abbas-Mustan and produced by Sunir Kheterpal's Azure Entertainment. 

 Pointing out that the story and screenplay would not follow the novel to a tee, Mustan had revealed that they had given Saif Ali Khan a one-and-a-half hour narration before he left for Mauritius to shoot Humshakals and upon his return presented him with a bound script. They were waiting for the actor to return to Mumbai from 's Chandigarh schedule, to decide on the leading lady and work out the other details.

 But now it seems that the yet-untitled project, which was to release in 2015, will only roll next year. Sunir confirmed this saying, “Yes, the project has been pushed forward because Saif has a couple of films lined up which he has to wrap up first. There was a date issue over his ongoing commitments and hence we’ve decided to start only next year.”

 So is this the end of the Count story? Not yet. Buzz is, a TV adaptation of the Dumas novel is in the offing and this has thrown a spanner in the film. Also, with Edmond Dantès’s story also being scripted by Michael Robert Johnson for Constantin Film’s (they had earlier adapted Dumas’s The Three Musketeers) Hollywood production to be directed by Batman writer David Goyer, the subject already seems over-exploited.

 As of now, Abbas-Mustaan will probably concentrate on a murder mystery starring Big B and leave the Nawab and the Count for another day.

 Saif and Abbas-Mustan chose not to respond to our message.