Mumbai, October 09: Madhur Bhandarkar, known for realistic cinema, will direct Commissioner, a film about Madhur Bhandarkar’s next film after Jail may well be based on the Indian Premier League Commissioner Lalit Modi’s controversial life. Modi is one of the most powerful men in cricket and his dramatic life will make for a crackling screenplay.
Percept Picture Company will produce the film.
A couple of days ago, Madhur even met Lalit Modi at Vijay Mallya’s party in Bangalore. Modi is aware that Madhur has been asked to direct the film.
A source says, “There are a couple of other directors who are also in the fray. However, Madhur is the foremost contender for this film because he is a realistic filmmaker and this film simply cannot deviate from reality.”
Madhur said, “Yes, PPC made the offer, but I have yet to take a decision. Right now, I am tied up with the post-production work of another PPC film, Jail.”
Shailendra Singh, JT MD Percept Picture Company said, “It’s true that we are making Commissioner. We researched his life and the entire journey of IPL and we have written a fictional script. We had a brief chat with Shridhar Raghvan in South Africa to write the script. On Wednesday, we had a long discussion with Modi. He is excited, but preoccupied with the Champions League which started yesterday (Thursday). He said he will get back to us soon. He was very keen to know who will direct and we gave him some options. Now it depends on who likes the idea and who is available to make the film.”
Singh added, “We plan to release the film around the time the 2011 World Cup will be happening in India. Lalit Modi’s journey is quite amazing as he earned billions of rupees for BCCI in 22 days. It will be a dramatic story with content ranging from cricket to entertainment and it will also touch on match-fixing.”
—Agencies