If all goes well, beautiful Italian actress Monica Bellucci will don the garb of Sonia Gandhi in Jagmohan Mundhra's proposed bio-pic on the Congress chief. Mundhra, who is in Cannes for the market screenings of two of his films - the Aishwarya Rai starrer "Provoked" and the Kerala-set international thriller "Backwaters", has already got in touch with Bellucci, a juror this year for the main Cannes Competition.
"I have told her that that she simply cannot afford to miss this opportunity," the bearded director said half in jest.
Does he have Gandhi's go-ahead for the project? "Yes, the family is with me," said Mundhra.
Gandhi's children Rahul and Priyanka, he reveals, have expressed a desire to watch "Provoked", a film based on the experiences of a Britain-based Punjabi woman compelled to kill her abusive husband. Mundhra hopes to get a print of the film across to Delhi soon enough.
The Gandhi siblings have also seen Mundhra's "Bawander", inspired by the infamous Bhanwari Devi rape case.
Both "Provoked" and Aishwarya Rai's performance in the pivotal role have garnered positive reviews in Cannes and Mundhra has reason to believe that he is now ready to make the leap to the next level of what has always been an eventful, if somewhat chequered, career.
Bellucci can only add some more lustre to it.
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Lean, mean Ajay Devgan
From the Indian contingent's point of view, the first Saturday of the 59th Cannes Film Festival belonged in large measure to Ajay Devgan.
Having shed an appreciable amount of weight, he now wears a lean, mean look, well in keeping with the persona he projects in his home production, "Omkara".
"Director Vishal Bhardwaj has done a fabulous job of transporting William Shakespeare to an Uttar Pradesh mafia milieu. It is a great interpretation of a timeless classic," said the usually reticent Ajay.
Does the fact that he is being typecast as the strong, silent, brooding man on screen worry him?
"Not at all," Ajay shoots back. "Two weeks ahead of the release of 'Omkara' (release date - July 28), another film of mine, 'Golmaal', will be making it to the theatres. It is an out and out comedy, a completely different kettle of fish," he added.
At a late night bash on the beach of Carlton Intercontinental, the actor made every effort to let the eight-minute promo speak for the film. All that he would say when Bhardwaj called him up on the podium was: "It is great to be here." That's quintessential Ajay.
No wonder Bhardwaj had no difficulty whatsoever in making up his mind about who would be best at interpreting the character of the sombre Othello.
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Vishal Bhardwaj: bigger than ever
There is a story behind Vishal Bhardwaj's decision to adapt "Othello" for the Indian screen.
While working with the one and only Aamir Khan in a now-aborted production, Bhardwaj had spoken of his desire to weave his next film around the central premise of the classic Shakespearean drama. At that point, the plan was to keep it small a la "Maqbool".
But Aamir got excited and told Bhardwaj that he would love to essay the role of Iago. "That's what got me thinking," said the music director-turned-filmmaker.
"I realised that the 'Othello' adaptation could assume the dimensions of a big-budget star-driven venture." Though Aamir subsequently dropped out of the frame and Ajay Devgan stepped in as the eponymous character, Bhardwaj still had to find his Iago.
"It was in 'Dil Chahta Hai' that I had first seen sparks of brilliance in Saif Ali Khan. I knew he was the star who had the acting skills required to pull off the role of Langda," says Vishal.
With actors and stars like Ajay, Saif, Viveik Oberoi, Kareena Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Konkona Sensharma and Naseeruddin Shah, "Omkara" has become by far the biggest film of Bhardwaj's directorial career.
"In terms of budget, it is six times bigger than 'Maqbool'," he said. Will the impact of "Omkara" be just as huge?
-Indo-Asian News Service
(IANS)
