Randeep Hooda in Ketan Mehta's Rang Rasiya

Not long ago, Shaji Karun wanted to make the film on acclaimed painter Raja Ravi Varma with Ajay Devgan and Madhuri Dixit in the lead. But the project fell through after Madhuri turned down the offer because it required her to do a nude scene.

Now, the same subject has been picked up by Ketan Mehta. While he's decided on the male lead, he's still hunting around for someone to play the painter's muse. " Randeep Hooda will be acting in this film. The rest of the cast will be decided after some time. Other details have to finalised," says Mehta, who has named the film Rang Rasiya.

For Ketan, who has earlier made films like Sardar, The Rising (with Aamir Khan) and just announced The Rebel, based on the life of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi (to be played by Aishwarya Rai), this would be his fourth historical.

The filmmaker plans to complete Rang Rasiya even before he begins shooting for The Rebel. "This is one genre which we left in the seventies. One reason for that was such films are very hard to make and very expensive. India has lots of interesting stories in its history that can be told," he says.