Monica Bellucci to play Sonia Gandhi

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sheetal

@sheetald

Rocker

Posted: 19 years ago

Is this what Monica Bellucci would look like playing Sonia Gandhi?
IMAGING/ Rashid Ansari

It's now final. After considering Preity Zinta and current favourite Aishwarya Rai for the crucial role of Sonia Gandhi in his film, Sonia, producer J Murli Manohar has decided on Italian superstar Monica Bellucci to play the part.

Mundhra wanted Monica

"Aishwarya was an option, but she's busy with her other assignments. Monica is my director Jagmohan Mundhra's choice. If he thinks she's right for the role, I'd rather go with his vision. We've just completed the second draft of the script and sent it to Monica, who's in Canada right now. In all likelihood, she'll green-light the project, and we're on. Our pre-production work for Sonia is on full-time."

Sonia Gandhi

Meanwhile, Manohar's Provoked (also directed by Mundhra) is getting a good pre-release buzz.

"What's interesting is that it isn't being perceived as just a film about a battered wife. It's also seen as a comment on Asian-British relations. The relationship of empathy and friendship that Ash establishes with Miranda Richardson is amazing. Later, Robbie Coltrone comes in as Ash's defence lawyer, lending an international aura to Provoked."

International cinema

Manohar feels the time for global cinema has arrived. "Provoked has Miranda Richardson sharing screen space with Aishwarya. And Sonia will have Monica Bellucci with a Bollywood actor playing Rajiv Gandhi," he says, from London.

Love epic

Says Mundhra, "I see my film as an intimate epic, a human story of love, because Sonia came to India for the love of a man, and stayed for the love of its people. The film is based on a book whose rights have been properly and legally acquired.'' Mundhra is very clear that he wanted an Italian actress to play the role of the Italian Sonia. The film is scripted by Farrukh Dhondy.

Who is Monica Bellucci?

Monica Bellucci was born on September 30, 1968, in Italy, where she later drew comparisons with Sophia Loren.

Bellucci turned heads worldwide as a hip-swinging war widow in the 2000 Italian hit, Malna.

A former model, she began her film career in 1990, and made her US feature debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992).

Monica appeared with Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in 2003's The Matrix Reloaded. In 2004, she played Mary Magdalene to Jim Caviezel's Jesus Christ, in The Passion of the Christ.

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Monica Bellucci to play Sonia Gandhi

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