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After Mira Nair's "Shantaram", Amitabh Bachchan has now agreed to work with Deepa Mehta in her next film "Exclusion".
Mehta,
who sneaked into Mumbai for just a day for a series of press
conferences promoting her Oscar-nominated film "Water", found time to
meet up with Amitabh Bachchan at his office Janak to ink a deal.
"Amitabh
and I met in Toronto when he was there to promote Karan Johar's film
('Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'). I was there with 'Water'. He was interested
in 'Exclusion'. Now we met again at his office on Friday and he has
said yes. I'm too delighted for words. It's been a dream to direct
him," Mehta told IANS.
It looks like the Bollywood icon's
earlier stance on the redundancy of an international career is going
for a toss. Whether he wants it or not, international filmmakers are
ready to take his stardom to the West in a big way.
Earlier
entitled "Kamagata Maru", "Exclusion" is the true-life tale of a ship
that took a group of Indians to the shores of Canada in the early part
of the 19th century. But they were not allowed to enter the country.
It
is described as one of the most notorious "incidents" in the history of
exclusion laws in Canada and the United States designed to keep out
immigrants of Asian origin.
The film will feature Amitabh alongside John Abraham.
It's
like a double whammy for Mehta. She has managed to rope in one of the
most sought after actors for her film and "Water", about the plight of
the widows in the pre-independence era, is set to hit the Indian
marquees on March 9. John, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas play important
roles in the film, which was shot in Sri Lanka.
By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service
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