Indian megastar Bachchan to play Bangladesh founder

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and his celebrity family members have all tentatively agreed to take part in a film based on the life of Bangladesh's founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, local media said on Thursday.

Amitabh will take the role of Mujib in the film, named "The Poet of Politics," while his son Abhishek Bachchan will act in the role of a young Mujib, Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, the producer of the film, told ANA, a U.S.-based Bangladeshi news agency.

The ANA report, published in several Dhaka dailies on Thursday, said Chowdhury, an expatriate Bangladeshi journalist and newspaper columnist, also told the news agency that Amitabh's daughter-in-law and former Miss Universe, Aishwarya Rai, and renowned actress Shabana Azmi will also act in two key roles.

Shyam Benegal, the only director to won India's National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi five times, will direct the movie.

"After getting the consent of Amitabh, I am now a relieved man. To project a person of the magnitude of Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujib), I could not imagine no one other than him," Chowdhury was quoted as saying in New York.

"Now not only Amitabh, his other family members have also agreed to take up the challenge," added Chowdhury.

It was not clear when Chowdhury will start shooting the film, which will be made in English and dubbed into Bengali, Hindi and other languages.

Mujib led Bangalis to an independence struggle in 1971, which resulted in the independence of former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

Mujib was killed, along with most of his family, in a 1975 coup.