Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan recently wrapped the first part of the magnum opus anticipated film, Ponniyin Selvan. Helmed by Mani Ratnam, the film stars a huge star cast and has been shooting for the past few months. The actress now has reportedly signed her next project and it is an Indo-American film.
According to the report in a news tabloid, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has signed a film named The Letter which is based on Rabindranath Tagore’s book Three Women. The film will be helmed by Fusion singer and theatre writer-director Isheeta Ganguly. Confirming the news, Ganguly told News18, “Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will be playing the main protagonist in the film. While the play was called Three Women, we are changing the name and have titled our film The Letter as the film is based around the letter of Kadambari Devi who was Tagore’s sister-in-law. I am really glad that Aishwarya loved the script and agreed to be a part of my directorial debut.”
Ganguly wanted to make the film in Hindi but Aishwarya Rai Bachchan suggested going ahead with English. She revealed, “Aishwarya and I were in discussion before the pandemic happened. I was originally looking to make it as a Hindi film. When she read the script she felt that the film would fly in English given the urban American sensibilities of the story. It was her conviction that I decided to make it into an Indo-American film.”
Meanwhile, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will star in Mani Ratnam’s dream project which is based on Tamil literature’s most celebrated book Ponniyin Selvan, which is based in the era of the Chola dynasty. Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Vikram, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prabhu, Sarath Kumar, Jayaram, Prakash Raj, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Jayachithra, Rahman, Vikram Prabhu, Ashwin Kakamanu, Vijay Yesudas, Lal, Nasser, Kishore, Nihalgal Ravi, Riyaz Khan, Mohan Raman, Arjun Chidambaram, Babu Antony, Vinodhini, Balaji Sakthivel and Parthiban star in this magnum opus project.
AR Rahman is composing the music. Elango Krishnan, Kabilan, Siva Ananth, and Krithika Nelson are the lyricists. National Award-winners Ravi Varman and Sreekar Prasad will work on the cinematography and editing respectively. Mani Ratnam, Jeyamohan and Kumaravel have penned the script and Jeyamohan has worked on the dialogues. The film has been shot in Hyderabad, Thailand, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, and Pollachi. The film is set for the summer 2022 release.