After Madhuri Dixit backed out from the project on personal grounds, Krishna Shah, a US filmmaker of an Indian origin, is now considering casting Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra to play the lead role in a biopic based on the life of late prime minister Indira Gandhi.
Titled Mother: The Indira Gandhi Story, the movie is set to be a big-budget, two-part series on the life of the Indian leader, also known as the Iron Lady. Shah is reportedly finalising the deal with Academy Award winning make-up artist Jenny Shircore.
Shircore, who believes that Chopra is the only Bollywood actor who can look like Gandhi, after some prosthetic work on her face, added that the actress' face matches that of the late prime minister. "Yes, I am in conversation with Jenny who thinks that Priyanka is the one who can fit in the character of Indira, but it will be too premature to talk about casting as we have not approached anybody as yet," Shah said in a statement.
Shah is reportedly also in conversation with other actors such as Albert Finney, Emily Watson, Tom Hanks and Tommy Lee Jones to play other characters in the film.
The first part of the movie will be based on Gandhi's life leading up to the 1971 war, while part two will focus more on her relationship with her sons — Rajiv, who succeeded her as the prime minister, and Sanjay Gandhi.
"The script has been reworked after I got my hands on Richard Nixon's personal tapes related to the 1971 Bangladesh War. My research has changed the script a lot and now we are looking at casting an appropriate face for Indira Gandhi's character," Shah said. It is alleged that Dixit could not do the movie as she is currently looking after her mother-in-law who is ill.
