By IANS,
Mumbai : Automobile major Mahindra & Mahindra, which recently created a media fund, may co-finance Indian origin filmmaker Pan Nalin’s next movie “Buddha”.
“Nalin told a select gathering at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival that the film on Buddha would be financed by Mahindra & Mahindra in partnership with a North America-based distribution firm,” a friend said.
The company, however, has not made any formal announcement regarding its association with the Gujarat-born director’s latest venture.
Nalin, who has earlier made the critically-acclaimed “Samsara”, said the movie would go on the floors in October and would be shot on locations in Southeast Asia, his friend added.
The film would project Lord Buddha not as a godly figure but would trace his life’s journey in the context of the contemporary strife-torn world.
Nalin had told IANS last month that he would like to cast Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwariya Rai for the movie and that he had already had preliminary talks with them.
But the movie may now have an international cast, comprising mostly Hollywood stars, industry sources said.
Scripted by Tinker Lindsay, it will be produced under Pan Nalin’s production banner Monsoon Films.