By Jilawatan

Ben Kingsley, the renowned Hollywood actor who enacted the character of Mahatma Gandhi with panache in Richard Attenborough’s Oscar winning flick ‘Gandhi’, is all set to play the part of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan opposite gorgeous Aishwarya Rai in upcoming flick ‘Taj’.

The movie is going to be made on a huge scale with its cost going upwards of Rs 125 crore and the shooting starting in the autumn of next year. The focus of the flick will be on the intrigue, pain, loss and the decisions that went into the making of the Taj Mahal.

The flick will especially portray the helplessness and loneliness of Shah Jahan, who had been one of the most powerful rulers of India. Ben Kingsley wants to bring alive the human aspects of jealousy, intrigue, etc, in Shah Jahan’s household that went during and after the making of Taj Mahal.

While Ben Kingsley, who is 67 year of age, will play the great Mughal emperor, it will be Aishwarya Rai, in the character of his queen Mumtaz Mahal. It was Mumtaz, who had inspired the renowned ruler to build the monument in her memory.

Aishwarya Rai and Ben Kingsley had earlier worked with each other in the ‘Last Legion’ and it was during that period that she was offered the role to play Mumtaz Mahal. Aishwarya, being a big fan of Kingsley, had immediately given her nod for the flick.

Ben Kingsley’s fourth wife, Daniela Lavender, who is a Brazilian, will play the first wife of Shah Jahan. The first wife of Shah Jahan was a Persian Princess known by the name of Kandhari Begum. The story of the film has important role of Shah Jahan’s first wife, who was very active in the intrigue game of the King’s household.

Sources close to Ben Kingsley, whose company SBK Productions is producing the flick, say that the Taj Mahal will be recreated for the purpose of shooting of the flick and the major segment will be completed there. However, the initial and the final portions of the flick will be shot in Agra, after getting requisite permission from the authorities.

It may be recalled that Shah Jahan’s rule in the Indian history is known as the golden period of Mughal India, when an all-round development in art, literature and architecture had taken place. The monumental Taj Mahal still stands as a witness to that prosperous and glorious era.

However, Shah Jahan’s last days as emperor were not very happy as his own son Aurangzeb had imprisoned him. It is said that the sad emperor Shah Jahan would constantly stare at Taj Mahal for hours from the window of his prison.