Aishwarya to play Mumtaz Mahal in Ben Kingsley’s film on Taj
Friday, 28 September 2007
Bombay, September 28: Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai will star in a movie by Ben Kingsley on the making of the Taj Mahal, in which Kingsley will play Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, a report said yesterday.
The movie is likely to be filmed next year in Agra that is home to the Taj Mahal, The Times of India newspaper quoted Kingsley as saying in an interview.
The Taj Mahal, recently voted one of the new seven wonders of the world, was built by Moghul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Soon after its completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son and imprisoned at the nearby Agra Fort.
“The movie is on the building of the Taj Mahal,” said Kingsley, who is producing the film. “The romance will also include Shah Jahan’s isolation for years in a prison cell.”
“I and Aishwarya will be playing Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal,” he said.
Kingsley said his production house was currently working with a scriptwriter on the project.
He said Rai agreed to do the movie when he spoke to her during the filming of The Last Legion — a Hollywood epic about the Roman Empire.
Rai, a former Miss World, is a popular actress who has acted in more than 30 movies.
Kingsley was born Krishna Bhanji in Britain. His father, Rahimtulla Harji Bhanji, was of Indian descent.
Kingsley won the best-actor Oscar for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi in the 1980s. He is well known in India for his portrayal of the independence leader and champion of nonviolence.
--Agencies
The Siasat Daily, 2004.
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