Film on Sonia faces further delay
(No Ratings Yet)Shooting for the multi-million pound film on Congress president Sonia Gandhi has been delayed due to differences between the producer and director on getting her consent for the project, according to sources close to the production. The film’s producer, Murli Manohar, is inclined to get Gandhi’s consent while director Jagmohan Mundhra believes that securing the book’s rights on which the film is to be based is enough to start production.
The film is based on Indian journalist Rasheed Kidwai’s Sonia — A Biography. “We are trying to get consent from all those concerned to make a good film that would be appreciated by everybody,” Manohar said. He added that he was unable to commit when the filming would begin since “some procedural formalities” were yet to be completed. Italian actress Monica Bellucci will play Gandhi in the film. The sources said that getting a formal consent from Gandhi for the film was a near impossibility. According to Mundhra, a formal consent was not required.
“The script is, after all, based on the book authored by Rasheed Kidwai which has been in circulation for three years and there have been no objections to its contents,” said Mundhra. He said there was nothing unusual about making a film on a living person, as there were several examples of such films, including those on Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Erin Brockovich. Murli Manohar said that nobody from the Congress party was in touch with him on the film.
The project was launched in 2005 at a glittering function in Mumbai by former British industry secretary Patricia Hewitt as part of the “Bollywood Initiative”, which allows British investment in the Indian film industry. The film is the first of six projects under the initiative launched by MATV, Leicester, in association with Murli Manohar’s CEE (I) TV Entertainment, Britain, and is supported by Mars Entertainment Group and Motion Pictures Partners International, Britain.
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