Shekhar Kapur

Dramas, even Oscar-nominated ones, rarely get sequels unless they’re filled with web-crawlers, Decepticons, or Tyrannosaurus Rexes. So when Shekhar Kapur received a greenlight to film the period piece Elizabeth: The Golden Age–his return to the lace and frills first introduced in 1998’s Elizabeth–it came as an interesting turn of events for many.

For the story’s continuation, released to theaters Friday, October 12, 2007, Kapur convinced Aussie Cate Blanchett to reprise her Oscar-nominated role as the young monarch, with Geoffrey Rush returning as Sir Francis Walsingham. This time around Queen Elizabeth finds herself comfortably seated on the royal throne, just as intrigue and danger descend upon the court once again. King Phillip II and his armada are set to move against England, and Elizabeth’s faithful advisor Walsingham exposes an assassination plot against the queen. But along with the drama and intrigue comes romance for the stern monarch as she falls under the spell of adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), a man she is forbidden to love according to British decorum. As with its predecessor, historical accuracy might be murky, but Kapur’s main concern is creating drama and thrills.

Raised in what is now Pakistan, Kapur got his start in Bollywood films, directing his first movie, Masoom, in 1983. He began shooting a Bollywood version of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine in 1992, but never completed it and the project was scrapped. In between Elizabeth and its sequel, Kapur would direct a version of The Four Feathers (2002), also dealing with the British Empire and starring Heath Ledger. Together with Andrew Lloyd Webber, he has co-produced the hit Broadway musical Bombay Dreams, which borrows largely from Bollywood’s dynamic, up-tempo style of directing, where everything must be grand and epic. Kapur’s English-language canon is still growing, but he remains one of the few Bollywood directors to truly have crossover success in the American market.