Abhishek gears up to play with Gulel

Abhishek Bachchan will be doing Aparna Sen’s first Hindi film Gulel. She was earlier supposed to do an English comedy titled Jewellery Box with Govinda and daughter Konkona together, but after he ditched her at the last moment, she is now starting work on Gulel. The original choice for the role was Ajay Devgan. A source says, “The National Award winning director, who has only made Bangla and English films before, is now reviving, Ismail Merchant’s nephew, Naeem Hafiz’s Gulel. The project had been stalled after Merchant’s demise two years ago. It was supposed to star Devgan in the role of a Bihari convict and Saif Ali Khan playing a Parsi gentleman. Aparna had also finalised Bipasha Basu as the lead actress with Urmila Matondkar and Kareena Kapoor in comparatively smaller but important roles. The project is now being totally revamped and the casting has been completely changed.” “The script of the film revolves around an assassin, who is on the lookout for his prey, a Parsi young man. The film was also supposed to have acclaimed filmmaker-dramatist director, Vijaya Mehta in the role of Saif’s aunt,” the source adds. Aparna had also expressed earlier that Abhishek liked the script a lot. He has expressed his keenness to work on it. But, the problem currently lies with his dates. Only if his dates are adjusted, would they be able to go ahead with the project. Abhishek has always expressed his delight for working with Bangla directors. He has done two Bangla films, Antarmahal (Rituparno Ghosh) and Desh (Raja Sen) where he had mom Jaya Bachchan playing his onscreen mother as well. His next Bollywood release Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, is also with Bengali director Pradeep Sarkar.