Bombay Velvet

Danny Boyle ropes in SRK and Aamir for new film

Talk about an unbelievable casting coup - two of the biggest Bollywood honchos in existence would in all probability appear together on screen for Danny Boyle's new film!

In case you're Hollywood-challenged, Danny Boyle is the director of Slumdog Millionaire, which took home a busload of Oscars, including one for AR Rahaman. And it gets better - Boyle will act as producer for the new film, titled 'Bombay Velvet' which will be directed by maverick filmmaker Anurag Kashyap!

Boyle has already confirmed that Aamir is signed up for the film, he is now in talks with Shahrukh Khan for a lead role in Bombay Velvet. If all goes well, the film, with SRK and Aamir begins shooting in February 2010 and will hit screens in Q1 2011. Bombay Velvet is quite like Slumdog Millioanire, but is a period piece, set in the year 1940. The film is reportedly based on real incidents, but Boyle has taken creative liberties in the script to make it more interesting and entertaining.

Bombay Velvet has been written by Kashyap from a treatment by John Hodge who earlier wrote Boyle's 'Shallow Grave', 'Trainspotting' and 'A life less ordinary'. Bombay Velvet may well be an adaptation of the novel Maximum City by Suketu Mehta; back in March Boyle was attached to make film an adaptation of the book and had approached Aamir Khan for the lead role. Maximum City explores the lead character's return to Mumbai after a gap of two decades; he experiences the politics of today's Mumbai, meeting murderous gangsters as well as Bal Thackeray along the way. The book gives socio-political analysis of the history and people of Mumbai. 

However, the book is set in modern times yet Bombay Velvet is set in the 1940s. Boyle wanted to cast SRK as the host of Kaun Banega Crorepati in Slumdog Millioanire. SRK had turned down the role, an act which the star now regrets. Supposedly, Bombay Velvet will be split into three acts, and a different actor will play the lead in each act. Shahrukh will feature in the first, a new actor in the second while Aamir will snap up the third. The film marks the second collboration between Anurag Kashyap and Danny Boyle, the latter had given some creative inputs for Dev D.