Benegal to direct film on Spy Princess

Acclaimed filmmaker Shyam Benegal is attempting yet another ambitious film.

After Bose:The Forgotten Hero, which was based on freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose's life, Benegal will now bring to the silver screen the story of the courageous Indian princess, Noor Inayat Khan, who spied for the British during the Second World War.

The movie is based on the critically acclaimed book The Spy Princess by Shrabani Basu and will be shot entirely in Britain and France. With a screenplay by Lord Meghnad Desai and Kishwar Desai, Noor's story will be brought alive by an international cast speaking four languages - Hindi, English, French and German.

A descendent of Tipu Sultan and the daughter of Hazrat Inayat Khan and his British wife, Ora Ray Baker, Noor was the first woman to have infiltrated into occupied France as a radio operator. She worked undercover in Paris, helping the French resistance.

Although brand Benegal boasts of quite a few well executed period films, this is his most ambitious project yet.