Shekhar Kapur would give his ‘right arm’ to work with Matt Damon now: ‘It’s time’ | Hollywood News

3 min readMumbaiJul 12, 2026 12:53 PM Hours after The Odyssey star Matt Damon revealed his “20-year debt” to work with Shekhar Kapur, the veteran Indian filmmaker expressed his desire to collaborate with the actor, 24 years after a missed opportunity to work together. Kapur has lauded Damon’s “emotional depth” and agreed that it’s now time for them to collaborate, since they couldn’t back in 2002.
What Shekhar Kapur said
“I don’t think there is a filmmaker in the world who wouldn’t give their right arm to work with an actor who has as much emotional depth as Matt Damon,” said Shekhar Kapur. “Who can ever forget his famous scene with Robin Williams, ‘It’s not your fault,’ in Good Will Hunting. I must have watched it over a 1000 times and been moved to tears each time,” he told NDTV.
Matt Damon broke through in Hollywood with his performance as the titular character Will Hunting in Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting (1997). Also starring late legendary actor Robin Williams and Damon’s longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck, Good Will Hunting fetched both Damon and Affleck their maiden Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay.
“Events move between the past, present and the future… while time is created in our imagination. So, it’s time Matt and I finally collaborate,” said Shekhar Kapur. The filmmaker’s wish came right after Damon revealing his unfulfilled wish to work with Shekhar back in the early 2000s, in response to him being asked which Indian filmmaker he’d like to collaborate with now, at the India press conference of Chropher Nolan’s upcoming action adventure fantasy epic The Odyssey in Mumbai on Saturday.

Matt Damon’s wish to work with Shekhar Kapur
“I remember that when we were starting out, everyone wanted to collaborate with Shekhar Kapur. I remember when I couldn’t do The Four Feathers for some reason, I was really upset about that,” Matt Damon said at the press conference. “I think I was signed up for a Bourne movie. So, I guess, he has always been on my l and I would like to have another go. That’s like a 20-year-old little debt I’ve been carrying around in my pocket,” added the actor.
Shekhar Kapur, who is best known for directing seminal Indian films like the 1983 family drama Masoom, the 1987 superhero movie Mr. India, and the 1994 crime drama Bandit Queen, made his Hollywood debut and breakthrough with the 1998 period drama Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett as Queen Elizabeth I of England, which also won an Oscar for Best Makeup in 1998.
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Shekhar next helmed the The Four Feathers, a period war epic. While he first approached Matt Damon to play the protagon Harry Faversham, the latter was busy filming Doug Liman’s 2002 blockbuster action thriller The Bourne Identity, where he played the titular spy Jason Bourne. Heath Ledger, late actor best known for playing Joker in Nolan’s 2008 hit superhero movie The Dark Knight, went on to play the lead role.