Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, Madhuri Dixit & More Stars Being Reportedly Considered For An Ambitious Project Inspired By Shiva Purana

The Indian film industry (both North and South India) is known for launching big budget projects only for them to either have ballooned up numbers or never take off. Now, this writer overheard some whispers occurring within industry corridors for one of the most ambitious projects ever with early discussions understood to be taking place overseas. A source revealed, “There is a team exploring an ambitious contemporary film drawing inspiration from the Shiva Purana, with its characters and themes envisioned in a modern-day setting.”

Pan-India stars on the radar

Adding to the intrigue is the proposed casting. The principal roles are expected to be drawn from leading actors across both South Indian and Hindi cinema, giving the project a distinctly pan-India character. As per our source, prominent names from the southern film industries as well as Bollywood are among those being explored for key characters.

The source adds, “So far Mammootty, Mohanlal and Prithviraj from the Malayalam film industry, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan from the Tamil film industry, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and even Madhuri Dixit from the Hindi film industry are understood to be among the names that have surfaced during the preliminary conversations.”

The source adds, “They want Priyan (Priyandarshan) to direct it. However, Kamal wants to direct it too, so there might be a co-director collaboration between these two.”

The film will apparently be made in seven languages: Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, English, Telugu and two European languages.

Who will be Shiva?

As of now, no one has been finalised for the role of Shiva. “The makers are confident that they will find their Shiva soon,” our source says. “There is research going on about the Indus Valley civilisation and they want to compare how the divine looked back then and how it can be portrayed in a modern avatar. But one thing is for certain, this will undoubtedly be on another scale and nothing like the audience has ever seen before,” the source adds.

Ancient inspiration, modern world

The concept itself is understood to be markedly different from a conventional mythological film.

“While drawing inspiration from the Shiva Purana, the discussions envisage Shiva and other characters in a contemporary cinematic setting, potentially bringing ancient philosophical and mythological themes into a present-day narrative,” the source says.

The overseas discussions have added another layer of intrigue, although details surrounding the location, participants and any potential international collaboration remain unclear.

Big ambition, but early days

The project is understood to be at an exploratory stage, and there has been no official announcement confirming its cast, director, budget, production schedule or seven-language release plan. The Free Press Journal could not independently verify several details circulating around the proposed production.

The wishlist

It is important to note that none of the stars who are being “approached” or “considered” have confirmed their presence in the project. Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, and Prithviraj are some of the biggest names in the Indian film industry. Now, this can mean that this is merely the makers’ grand wishlist. At this stage, however, none of these names should be construed as confirmed casting or appointments. It remains unclear whether formal approaches have been made or whether the names are part of an initial wish list being considered as the project takes shape.