Leading Hindi film actress and Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai will play the lead role in Pride and Prejudice, an English film to be produced by non-resident Indian director Gurinder Chadha, director of the blockbuster Bend It Like Beckham.

Rai will play the role of Elizabeth Bennett, the heroine of Jane Austen's famous novel.

A leading Hollywood star of the status of Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt is being sought for the role of Will Darcy, the film's equivalent of Fitzwilliam Darcy.

The Bennetts, a Hertfordshire family with five teenage daughters in the 1813 novel, will become the Bakshis in the film produced by Pathe Pictures.

According to Chadha, the success of Bend It Like Beckham had helped to persuade Rai to star in her version of Pride and Prejudice. The film will be shot in Britain, India and the United States, but the dialogue will be entirely in English in an effort to attract a worldwide audience.

According to Chadha, Rai has confirmed her dates for four months next summer. "This film will combine spectacular visual extravagance with commercial Western storytelling," the film-maker said.