http://in.news.yahoo.com/070205/32/6btm0.html

Putting the stars in place


Tuesday February 6, 02:32 AM
Shantaram, the much-discussed autobiography written by Gregory David Roberts, is to be filmed and big names from the West and India will be in the cast. The film is being directed by Mira Nair and produced by the Pirates Of The Caribbean star Johnny Depp, who also plays the lead role.

Apart from promoting her next release, The Namesake, Mira is now finalising Indian actors. For now, she has roped in Amitabh Bachchan to play the character of Abdul Kader Khan. Now she is trying to rope in Shah Rukh Khan to play a cameo. Nair has two roles in mind for King Khan - the character of Qasim Ali Hussein, a headman in a Mumbai slum. This role is critical to the story. But if the actor's other work commitment keeps him busy, he may be offered the role of Krishn. Mira has already roped in Bipasha Basu to play the role of an
Indian journalist.

There is also a possibility of Chunky Pandey being offered a cameo role. In the book, it's mentioned that Shantaram met one Pandey during one of his shoots. So, Mira is expected to cast Pandey playing himself. The film is expected to be shot largely in Mumbai's slums. Since the slums at Colaba have been cleared - the book mentions Colaba slums - Nair plans to create a set. The shoot starts in November this year.

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Shah Rukh Khan on imdb.com
http://imdb.com/name/nm0451321/

sounds like she is really gathering a talented slate of actors-do not recognize their names but possibly we can explore their careers when we discuss the book. woohoo

I'm so glad this all moving forward and especially that many Indian actors will be in the film. Still curious to see who ends up as Carla and Prabaker.....

We sure can! :writing

I am so looking forward to this movie.
Joanie

Me to and especially since it will be filmed in India! I looking forward to The Namesake to taste a sample of her work-the book is good fifty pages to go a quick read.

Me too Anne, Namesake opens on March 9.

Is this exciting or what? Is it the first for Infinitum Nihil?
What a way to make an entrance! :claphands

I am anxious to see who gets the roles of Prabu and the others, too.
It's a large cast. It's EPIC.
I hope they don;t have to do away with too much. I especially need the scene where Prabaker takes Lin to his village, and explains how nobody is naked in India, especially without their clothes. :D

I see in my local newspaper this morning that Khan is trying to get some kind of professional rivalry begun (jealous!) with Bachchan. Bachchan is the more popular, and he's not playing, so it will be interesting to see if Khan consents to doing Shantaram.
http://bollywood.celebden.com/?p=1077
http://bollywood.celebden.com/?p=841

Oh geez....the last thing we need is some sort of Bollywood rivalry with this one. :banghead

Just wanted to clear up the Bollywood rivalry thing :)
I'm not exactly an expert on Bollywood, but I've become quite passionate about it and I'm trying to follow it as much as I can, so even though my opportunities of viewing Indian films aren't that many there's quite a bit I can tell you about the cast they're considering for Shantaram if you like :) (in fact I'll probably tell you eventually even if you don't want me to cause I'm just too excited about having a Hollywood film with Johnny Depp and Bollywood stars not to start talking about the Bollywood stars :P ).

Anyway, India is perhaps the only country that can boast a "star system" as strong as in the USA and that means lots of media attention, tabloids etc. Mr Bachchan and Shahrukh have both repeatedely denied that anything is wrong between them. The rumours started over really stupid stuff like that Shahrukh had a New Year's Eve party that Mr Bachchan didn't attend or Mr Bachchan organized an award ceremony that Shahrukh didn't attend (in both cases I think they actually had good reasons not to attend like being out of town or something like that) and since then the rumour seems to have stuck despite both of them repeatedely denying it. I particularly liked this article in which Shahrukh commented on the rumour in his classic tongue in cheek humour (Abhishek Bachchan is also an actor and is Amitabh Bachchan's son and Yash Chopra is one of the biggest producers in India and for some reason the media was trying to make out that Shahrukh was fighting with him also but that rumour was even more ridiculous, so it didn't stick for long).
Anyway, Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan have starred in 5 films together and imdb currently lists 3 films in production in which they are supposed to star alongside each other. Furthermore, one of the five films they did together was Paheli (2005) which was produced by Shahrukh and for which Shahrukh was really keen to get Mr Bachchan to play a cameo (which the latter happily did). So I really think that feud is far-fetched :)

As for the lines that are quoted in one of the articles that were linked, I'll just say that Shahrukh has a very tongue in cheek humour - in fact he's famous for it and often gets misquoted. The moment you take one of those kinds of lines out of context it sounds very different to how it was meant.

But also actually in terms of box office success Shahrukh is the more popular. Mr Amitabh Bachchan was immensely popular in the 1970s and is a bit of a legend, but Shahrukh has been the top grossing Indian actor since 1995. There's much I could write about both of them cause they're both fascinating characters, but I'll leave that for a different post maybe if people are actually interested :) At any rate it's going to be awsome to see Mr Bachchan alongside Johnny as Khaderbhai - he's perfect for that part! :D And I'm hoping that Shahrukh gets roped in too (although there are many who would say he is not right for that part, but I think he could be very good :P ).

Thanks for sharing the information about the Indian actors. It will be good to learn more about them as this project continues.

-- carpediem

This movie is going to very interesting to follow! Many thanks.

THank you for the info, it 's good to know the movie is moving forward, I am so looking forward to this one, cause as someone else said before it will be the first one for Infinitum Nihil woohoo , so i really wanna see how it will come up. :)