Mumbai: The hit actor-director pair of Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani will reunite for a biopic on Dadasaheb Phalke, the ‘father of Indian cinema’.
The filmmakers on Thursday issued a press release to announce the upcoming project.
Shooting for the untitled film will begin in October and Aamir will start preparing for his role after the release of ‘Sitaare Zameen Par.’
“Set against the backdrop of independence struggle, the story unfolds an extraordinary journey of an artist, who from scratch, against all odds, goes on to give birth to the largest indigenous film industry in the world,” the release stated.
Hirani, his collaborator Abhijat Joshi and writers Hindukush Bharadwaj and Avishkar Bharadwaj have been working on the script for four years.
AI designs for the era and period of the film have already been created by the Los Angeles-based VFX studios.
Phalke’s grandson Chandrashekhar Srikrishna Pusalkar has been supportive of the project and provided major anecdotes from Dadasaheb Phalke’s life, the filmmakers informed.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke, directed India’s first feature film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913.
‘Lanka Dahan’, ‘Shri Krishna Janma’, and ‘Kaliya Mardan’ are among his other notable works.
In 1969, the Indian government introduced the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, in Phalke’s memory.
The award is presented annually at the National Film Awards to honour lifetime contribution to Indian cinema.
The upcoming film will mark a third collaboration between Aamir and Hirani after ‘3 Idiots’ (2009) and ‘PK’ (2014).
