Mundhra plans film on British Muslim cop

Filmmaker Jagmohan Mundhra is planning to move quickly into yet another autobiographical film after "Provoked" and wants to cast Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role of a British Muslim policeman.

"'Shoot On Sight' is the story of a 55-year-old Muslim cop in Britain. After 30 years in England, the July 7 terrorist bombings happen, and the cop's loyalties, priorities and commitment to the law enforcement agencies in Britain are questioned," Mundhra told IANS.

"It's a role that takes on both personal and political colours. The character is modelled on a real-life cop Tariq Gaffoor. And since it requires someone with a strong, assertive but sensitive personality, who better equipped to play it than Bachchan? I'll meet him very shortly."

The film will again take the director into the realm of reality, like "Kamla", "Bawandar" and "Provoked".

"I love going into lives that have struggled. Sometimes the struggle is not so successful. This was the case with the character that Nandita Das played in 'Bawandar'. Her struggle against oppression failed but it's no less remarkable than Aishwarya Rai's struggle in 'Provoked'.

"But I guess Ash's character triumphs at the end, hence the exhilarating impact at Cannes. We went into the real-life character Kiranjit Ahluwalia's life through the book she co-wrote with Rahila Gupta. But I found the book wasn't giving my film the right perspective. So we got Carl Austen in. He got together with Rahila to re-work the book. We picked out episodes and lines from the book that were really shocking."

Jagmohan is all praise for his leading lady. "Ash is undoubtedly very beautiful. Beautiful women are more prone to be abused by men. Ash really worked on her character. Never flinched from doing the brutal scenes. In fact Ash's agent from the US, Simone, felt we weren't going far enough with the brutality. She didn't want the audiences to feel Ash's beauty was coming in the way of her portrayal of the trauma...As for Nandita, she's a dear friend and I had promised her I'd not cast her as a victim this time again after 'Bawandar'. And I kept my word."

"Provoked" is being praised for its hard-hitting theme.

"One of my predominant concerns was the 'David Versus Goliath' theme, how this frail village woman from Punjab took on the British system. I was also interested in the whole sub-plot about the Southhall sisters (Nandita and company) getting together to help Kiranjit in her crisis."

The director never felt better. "We worked so hard on 'Provoked' that I fell ill in the middle of the schedule. But I've started looking after myself now. I've lost a lot of weight, want to lose more. I've finally discovered my metier as a moviemaker. I feel I'm just starting out."