Lagaan superhero Aamir Khan is believed to have been zeroed in to play the lead role of Hanuman, while Gary Oldman of Nil By Mouth would play the part of Ravana. The role of Sita was reportedly offered to actress Shilpa Shetty, but news is that she has backed out of the mega project. The search is still on for an international actress to enact the role of Sita.

Message In A Bottle director Luis Mandoki was initially approached for Hanuman, and he even wrote a few drafts for the project, but now, Chuck Russell of The Mask fame has been reportedly finalized for the direction of the movie. It would be produced by Uru Patel from Cyborg 2. The best of action directors and special effects experts are believed to have been roped in for the movie. These decisions were taken at a clandestine meeting at Uru Patel’s residence three months ago, where Chuck Russell was present. The executive director of the movie Pradeep Guha also attended the meeting.

Aamir would play the role of a modern-day superhero in the film, who would fly over mountains and skyscrapers and rescue Rama from his problems in dealing with a modern Ravana. It would be a dream comes true for the actor, who reportedly wanted to play a superhero role after Hrithik Roshan’s Krrish and Shah Rukh’s upcoming sci fi Ra.1. 

Hoard of movies have Indian epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata as their source of inspiration, most of them are animation movies to educate kids about Indian mythology. Mani Ratnam's upcoming Ravana has the villain of the epic Ramayana as the protagonist. This has created waves of disapproval from sections of the society. A section of Hindus are concerned that the international project Hanuman might not capture the actual spirit of the Ramayana, the holy Hindu epic upon which it is based, and that it might add to the confusion over the concept of Hinduism, that is already prevailing outside India.

Reports state that the makers are waiting for Aamir Khan’s approval to begin work on the project. After the nod from the superhero, shooting for the film is scheduled to begin by the end of 2009 in Rajasthan, India. Part of it would be shot in Hollywood studios as well. Apparently, Aamir is yet to read through the script, and wants to sign each and every page of the script, to make sure that no changes are made during the actual shooting of the film. Sources state that Aamir wants to adopt this method of working – signing every page of the script – for all his films from now onwards. Other sources state that the makers of Hanuman are eager to have Aamir working with them, and are ready to oblige and meet all his conditions.

With many Indian A list actors refusing to be supporting casts in international projects, the ones with the clout are bringing Hollywood filmmakers and actors as the supporting crew and cast. Shahrukh Khan’s Ra. 1 has roped in Hollywood’s famous writer-director David Benullo for writing the screenplay. Well, we can rest assured that not all our super stars want to go to Hollywood, some of the best like SRK and Aamir are bringing home Hollywood expertise.

So, if all goes well, we would soon be seeing the Ghajini star as Hanuman and sexy Keanu as Rama on the silver screen! We are certain that perfectionist Aamir is taking a close look at the script to ensure he hurts no sentiments in his path to perfection. Go fly to the top, Aamir!

Image design: Suchitra K R