French film on Mumbai's 2008 terrorist attack

The 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai will provide the backdrop for the survival drama Taj Mahal, a French film for an international audience that will start shooting in the city in a few months.

This is one of the handful of projects announced during the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival.

The movie featuring mostly European actors including Stacy Martin (in the picture), who garnered a lot of critical attention for her work in the art-house hit Nymphomaniac, will focus on a woman who fights for her life in the famed hotel.

A number of Indian actors will be featured in the film but mostly in the supporting roles. Their names are not yet announced as negotiations are being held in the next few weeks.

The movie will cost about $12 million, a small budget for a Hollywood film but significant amount for an European film.

The producers of the movie backed by BAC, a big French movie company, said Taj Mahal will be directed by writer Nicholas Saada, one of the best known European movie writers who specialise in thrillers.

Screen International wrote this week that his hit film Sleepless Night is being remade as a 
Hollywood thriller by Warner. He made his directing debut several years ago with Spy, a big success in Europe. 

Taj Mahal is expected to be released early next year and will be made in English and French. Saada told reporters in Toronto that the film will depict the horror and fight for survival in one night and the events will be seen through the eyes of the character played by Martin as a beleaguered hotel guest.

He said the film will require ‘enormous’ preparatory work and will be shot in France (for some of the interior scenes) and Mumbai.

‘The mood of the film lies somewhere between the classic intensity of a thriller and the portrait of a character left to her own devices, who quickly learns the meaning of solitude,’ Saada said.

The film will offer thrills and emotions but will not be sensational narration, the production company said.  

BAC said here that the new project has the ‘right pedigree’ to draw international distributors.

The movie company also said the presence of the rising star Martin will also help the project get a higher profile.