(Top) Sana, who will play Paro in Kashmiri’s version of Devdas. (Center) Aishwarya as Paro and (above) Shah Rukh Khan as Devdas in Bhansali’s film.

Mumbai, Aug. 9: Iqbal Kashmiri can’t hope to have at his disposal the stash of cash that was available to Sanjay Leela Bhansali but his imagination more than matches his Indian counterpart’s.

The director of the second Pakistani version of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s novel, Devdas, will send Paro abroad, too. Bhansali could only think of despatching Devdas to England to study — letting his imagination stretch beyond the limits set by the author.

“We will have two song sequences in England with Paro appearing in Devdas’ dreams,” Kashmiri said, speaking to The Telegraph from Lahore.

Who will deny that movies are all about dreams? It’s not dreams, however, that spurred Kashmiri to do a “remake” of Devdas — after Bhansali’s effort, some are calling it the most famous Bengali novel ever. The veteran director is hoping to cash in on the popularity of Shah Rukh Khan’s Devdas in Pakistan, where Indian films cannot be shown at theatres but more pirated videos might be available in that country than legitimate copies are across the border.

Kashmiri, in short, is trying to feed the insatiable hunger in Pakistanis for Hindi movies.

The film will feature top-ranking heroines, Reema — as Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit in Bhansali’s version) — and Sana as Paro (Aishwarya Rai). Nadeem Shah will play Devdas. This will be Shah’s first film, though he has appeared on television before. He will also finance the film, Kashmiri said.

The director has been around for 20-25 years and has done all the genres of “action, social, family” films.

An average Pakistani film has a budget of Rs 1 to 2 crore, though Kashmiri said he would have access to an unlimited amount, a claim that draws scepticism from compatriots. “I doubt whether it will be more than Rs 1 crore,” said Sevy Ali, a producer from Pakistan who is here working on joint ventures with Mahesh Bhatt.

Maybe. But flights of fancy know no financial boundaries. “We watched Shah Rukh Khan’s Devdas,” Kashmiri said.

“Woh to paise ke daur pe chalaya hai (one big thing in its favour was its budget),” he said of the Rs 50-crore Indian film.

Kashmiri will score on other points, one of which is sending Paro abroad, though the director insists his film will follow the original “Bangali novel”.

He has read the novel several times and claims that in Saratchandra’s Devdas, too, the hero goes to England.

But what’s Devdas without drinking — and Islamic laws prohibit the consumption of liquor in Pakistan?

Kashmiri has an answer. The protagonist, after all, is a Hindu based in India.

This is not the first Devdas to be produced in Pakistan. One was made in 1965.

But it is not Saratchandra who rules Pakistan, but Shah Rukh Khan.