Monica Belluci may play Sonia in Jag Mundhra's film

Monica Belluci may play Sonia in Jag Mundhra's film: "Italian actress Monica Belluci may play Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a film based on her life ''Sonia'' to be directed by Jagmohan Mundhra.

Mundhra said that the talks are on with representatives of Monica Belluci for playing the role. He said he was quite clear about wanting an Italian actress to play the lead role in "Sonia". Rest of the cast will be chosen from actors of Indian origin based in US, UK and India.

The director said Aishwarya Rai starrer ''Provoked'' is in final stages of post production. Background music is being recorded in Chennai by A.R. Rahman. The final draft of the script of ''Sonia'' is due by October 1. Farooq Dhondy is writing the script and the book is based on a biography on the Congress leader by journalist Rashid Kidwai. Mundhra said ''Provoked'' will be release by the end of November and ''Sonia'' will be shot between December and April 2006. The story ,he said, portrays the life of Sonia Gandhi from her days as a student of English at a language school in Cambridge to her rise in the Indian political scene.

"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 a British produced film based on a book whose rights have been properly and legally acquired'' He said.

When asked whether he fears any political controversy given the sensitive nature of the subject, Mundhra said if there is any such controversy created it would have been by those who want to get publicity for themselves into the limelight."