Shalimar Director Makes a Comeback

Krishna Shah is perhaps best remembered for his film 'Shalimar' which he made in the late Seventies, a film in which he attempted to bring Bollywood and Hollywood together with a star cast featuring Dharmemdra and Zeenat Aman from India and Rex Harrison and Gina Lollobrigida from abroad. While the songs of that movie did extremely well, 'Shalimar' itself proved to be a dud at the box office.

But that has not really bothered Shah who is now keen on making a two part biopic on the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. And the bigger news is that he has managed to rope in the dhak dhak girl, Madhuri Dixit to essay the role of the former PM. Madhuri who was last seen in Yash Raj Films' 'Aaja Nachle', has not really signed any other film after her marriage and subsequent migration to the US as the offers have not really been exciting enough. But it seems Shah's offer was enticing enough for her to sign on the dotted line. Shah has quite an ambitious star lineup for the film as he is also believed to have roped in Tom Hanks and Tommy Lee Jones for the movie. They have been approached to play the roles of US Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Incidentally, the movie will be called, 'Mother The Indira Gandhi Story.' From Bollywood, Shah is believed to have signed on Dharmendra and Abhay Deol to play the roles of Motilal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi. Nana Patekar too may be roped in to play the late Jaiprakash Narayan. Pre production work on the film has already begun and the film is expected to be shot in the US, the UK and Russia. The first part of the biopic will deal with the early life of Indira Gandhi and will go right upto the 1971 war with Pakistan. The second half will span the rest of her life from the Emergency to her assassination. Like his earlier movie, 'Shalimar', this too promises to be a very ambitious venture and it remains to be seen how the film shapes up. Incidentally, Shah has also made movies like 'Cinema Cinema', 'American Drive In' and 'Hard Rock Zombies'.