Posted:
Cannes gift for Pee Cee
Vickey Lalwani
Mumbai Mirror
24th May
Last April, Bobby Bedi, the producer of Bandit Queen and Mangal Pandey: The Rising, had announced a film titled Lajjo with Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead. It was supposed to complete a hat-trick for the star jodi who had earlier been paired in 3 Idiots and Talaash. A R Rahman was to compose the music with lyrics by Gulzar. And Rensil D'Silva was working on the script. But the Partition drama didn't roll. According to a source, "The film was based on the works of the famous Urdu playwright, Ismat Chughtai. The reason it didn't go on the floor was because of a dispute over the story rights." Now, Mirror has learnt that Bedi and T P Aggarwal, who are currently at the Cannes Film Festival, have locked a deal to revive the project. Aggarwal will co-produce the film and Bedi will direct it. Added the source, "The earlier dispute has now been settled with Bedi having officially bought the rights." Confirming the news, Aggarwal told Mirror from the French Riviera, "I am happy that Lajjo is finally happening. We should have the cast in place within four months. We don't have anyone in mind for the male lead yet but we plan to approach Priyanka (Chopra) to play the heroine as soon as she is back in town. I have no clue know about Kareena being in talks for the role earlier."
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