Dus director to expose Rajiv's assassination

Political films may not be the order of Friday in Bollywood, not when slick flicks about netagiri like Govind Nihalani's Dev and Mani Ratnam's Dil Se have come and drowned.

Lately we had Jagmohan Mundhra trying unsuccessfully to put together a biopic on Sonia Gandhi. And proving that political thrillers are still favoured, Mani Shankar who made one of Bollywood's early films 16 December from that genre, is ready with Mukhbir, a slick-fest about a young government spy's attempts to foil a politician's assassination.

Now it's (political) party time for Anubhav Sinha who made Dus, one of the slickest espionage thrillers on this side of The Day Of The Jackal. Anubhav, who's readying Cash for release, is ready to roll a very hush-hush project that will blow the lid on the controversies and conspiracies behind the assassination of India's former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Anubhav along with a research team has been gathering material for months on the entire complex manoeuvres that resulted in the shocking murder of Rajiv. They've apparently chanced upon some startling and hitherto unrevealed facts on the gruesome tragedy.

"It's true," Anubhav said, adding, "I'm doing a feature film on this subject. It will be a celluloid investigation of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, tackling questions that were never asked, let alone answered. I hope to shoot and complete the film by the end of next year."

Anubhav is hopeful that the Gandhi family would be brought into the loop for the project. The crucial question of who will play Rajiv is irrelevant to the director at the moment because the film begins where the protagonist's life ends. However, Anubhav hopes to rope in Sanjay Dutt or Abhishek Bachchan to play Rajiv Gandhi.