Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 3, 2014)

Vishal Bhardwaj's Haider has competition. We're not talking Hrithik Roshan and Bang Bang here but Laurence Olivier's Hamlet which will be playing at a city theatre, Deepak Talkies, for a week till October 10.

If Vishal has taken liberties with the Shakespearean play, setting it in the Kashmir of the '90s and giving The Ghost a human voice and form, then so did Olivier in his 1948 British film adaptation. He edited out nearly half the dialogue and two important characters. The Ghost was left uncredited but apparently was voiced by the director.

Punit Shah, owner of the theatre and general secretary of the Cinema Owners & Exhibitors Association of India, will be among the audience this weekend.

"The day Vishal announced that Haider would open on October 2, we decided to bring in Hamlet in the 7 pm slot. There will be plenty of takers for both films, the only drawback is that since this is a long weekend, half of Mumbai has emptied out. But it's a long week," he asserts optimistically. 

Asira Tarannum (MID-DAY; July 14, 2014)

Vishal Bharadwaj’s upcoming film, Haider, is an adaptation of Hamlet. What’s interesting is that Onir’s next project, called Veda, is also an adaptation of the Shakespearean drama.

Incidentally, not too long ago Tigmanshu had revealed his plans to make a movie on Hamlet with Hrithik in the lead role, and Onir was allegedly upset about it as Veda — that he had announced three years ago — deals with the same subject.

Now sources say that it’s director Vishal Bharadwaj who is not happy about Onir working on his film. The former has apparently expressed his displeasure about Onir starting work on Veda. Says a source, “Vishal was with a few friends recently and he said that while he’s okay with filmmakers adapting plays, why should they only look at Hamlet. He said, ‘Suddenly everyone wants to make an adaptation of Hamlet including Onir’.”

When contacted, Onir said, “I will work on the film after finishing the film I am currently busy with. I had announced the project before everyone else did and Vishal is a friend. These are just rumours being circulated by people. It will not affect him at all — if anything it will affect me because his film releases first.”

Vishal said, “Shakespeare is not my property; I’ve made my film and Onir is too sweet to get upset with.”