He says &quot;Barfi!&quot; is his most personal film ever, and is confident that a movie with only a few dialogues could strike a chord with the viewers all across. &quot;I&#39;ve to confess we&#39;re toying with the idea of putting out an English version of the film,&quot; said Basu in an interview. <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2012/sep/Anurag-Basu_1.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 493px; " /> Anurag Basu. &quot;Barfi!&quot;, starring Ranbir Kapoor as a deaf and mute boy, Priyanka Chopra as an autistic girl, and Ileana D&#39;Cruz in the role of a Bengali girl, has tugged at the heartstrings of the audiences with its simplicity and heartwarming narrative. What&#39;s next? &quot;Ranbir and I are committed to make the Kishore Kumar biopic together. That will take some time. So in the meanwhile, I am making a small film,&quot; he said: Excerpts from the interview: Q. How do you plan to take &#39;Barfi!&#39; ahead of the non-Hindi audience? Well, I&#39;ve to confess we&#39;re toying with the idea of putting out an English version of the film. I can&#39;t say much about that right now. Let&#39;s see. The film has been to the Pusan and Marrakesh film festivals. The only reason it wasn&#39;t at the Toronto International Film Festival is because we were too busy releasing the film worldwide to take it to Toronto. But those sections of non-Indian viewers who have seen &#39;Barfi!&#39; say it has the potential to break through the language barrier. Q. You had a frightening brush with mortality when you fell ill with cancer. Is that what gave you the strength to celebrate life so vigorously in &#39;Barfi!&#39;? Yes, I think so. After my illness, I wrote other darker films namely &#39;Gangster&#39; and &#39;Life... In a Metro&#39;. But I think &#39;Barfi!&#39; is my coming-of-age film. It&#39;s not a perfect film. But this is my most personal film. Q. Did you ever fear Ranbir&#39;s deaf-and-mute act would fall flat? I think we give too much importance to words in our cinema. Surely there has to be a difference between radio plays and cinema! I&#39;d have had even less dialogues. But since there was a complicated crime involved in the storytelling, I had to offer explanations through voiceovers by Ileana d&#39;Cruz and Saurabh Shukla. But not for a minute did I feel handicapped because Ranbir had no dialogues. In my earlier films too, I&#39;ve experimented with a lot of silences. Q. Priyanka Chopra as the autistic girl is flawless. Did you have to work hard on stripping her glamour? It&#39;s so ironical that we Indian filmmakers get complimented when our actors give credible performances. Isn&#39;t that a given for any film? I think my actors trusted me with what I had in mind. Priyanka shed her vanity completely. Q. You earlier made some unoriginal films like &quot;Saaya&quot;, &quot;Kucch To Hai&quot; and &quot;Tumsa Nahin Dekha&quot;? You know I don&#39;t know why &#39;Kuchh To Hai&#39; and &#39;Tumsa Nahin Dekha&#39; are credited to me. The former I gave up, and the latter I fell ill and left. Q. Today you are the most original voice in Hindi cinema? I am not going to change my priorities after &#39;Barfi!&#39;. And to say I am the most original is not correct. The credit for doing an original get-happy film goes to Rajkumar Hirani long before I made &#39;Barfi!&#39;. Q. I saw a lot of Kamal Haasan and Sridevi from &#39;Sadma&#39; in Ranbir and Priyanka. &#39;Sadma&#39; was never a reference point. But I love that film. It&#39;s one of my favourites. So maybe subconsciously I was influenced. In &#39;Sadma&#39;, Sridevi was like a 10-year old child. Priyanka is not a child in my film. Q. But you can&#39;t deny the influence of Charlie Chaplin on Ranbir&#39;s performance? I won&#39;t even try to deny it. Even before Ranbir started, I told him to watch Chaplin&#39;s silent films. There&#39;s a definite influence of Chaplin in Ranbir&#39;s character. Q. What next? Ranbir and I are committed to make the Kishore Kumar biopic together. That will take some time. So in the meanwhile, I am making a small film. Q. No film of yours can be small after &#39;Barfi!&#39;. Not in idea and thought. But in budget. It would be a positive, happy film. But you can&#39;t slot me as a happy filmmaker. I consciously try to make different films each time. Q. One critic asks, if &#39;Barfi!&#39; is Anurag Basu&#39;s, then who directed &#39;Kites&#39;? Ha ha. I am proud of &#39;Kites&#39; too. And I am not being diplomatic. It wasn&#39;t so bad. It&#39;s my film. I don&#39;t disown it. True, it was made in the democratic spirit and the producer Rakesh Roshan was also present during the shooting. But I called the shots. &#39;Kites&#39; is as much my film as &#39;Barfi!&#39;.

After treating Hindi-viewing audiences to "Barfi!", director Anurag Basu plans to cook up an English version of the movie for non-Hindi audiences. 

Anurag Basu plans English 'Barfi!'

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Anurag Basu plans English 'Barfi!'

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