Om Puri new NFDC chief

MUMBAI, April 24 (SAMPURN): Bollywood actor Om Puri will be taking over as chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation Limited (NFDC). The post has been lying vacant for almost a year following the resignation of film distributor and financier Manmohan Shetty.

Om Puri's selection has come at a time when the Information and Broadcasting ministry has assigned NDFC the job of commissioning a film to mark the 150th year of the 1857 Uprising, which is to be directed by Vinay Shukla.

The film is to be produced by Firoz Nadiadwala in collaboration with NFDC and is based on Tantiya Tope to be portrayed by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar.