CELEBS FACTORY

If things go as planned, Hindi filmmaker Prabhakar Shukla might be able to rope in Amitabh Bachchan to play Maqbool Fida Hussain in the film on the life of the deceased painter.

For one year Prabhakar Shukla has been working on a project called ‘Husain - The Painter’. But before he could discuss the film in detail with MF Husain, the painter passed away on Thursday in London this week.

Now, Shukla has two options - to shelve the project or to go ahead and make the film. He’s even got a producer to back the project.

Shukla has apparently decided to make the film. He hopes to sign Amitabh Bachchan to play the role of MF Husain. However, Shukla has still not approached the superstar and isn’t sure that Bachchan will indeed give his nod to the project. Shukla has to his credit a small-budget film titled Kahani Gudiya Ki and hasn’t yet directed a big budget Bollywood film.

Big B, by the way, was on very good terms with MF Husain. The latter had gifted him a painting of Lord Hanuman carrying the sanjivani booti when Bachchan was hospitalized during the ‘Coolie’ incident.

Will Amitabh Bachchan now play MF Husain on screen?

Renowned Indian painter Maqbool Fida Hussain, who lived the last five years of his life in exile, died of heart attack in London on Thursday morning. He was 95.

According to agency reports, Hussain died at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital at 2.30 am.

In his long and illustrious career as a painter, M F Hussain brought global recognition to Indian art. He was even described by Forbes magazine as the “Picasso of India”. He was doubtlessly the highest earning painter of India, with one painting of his even fetching $2 million at a Christie’s auction.

However, in the mid 1990s Hussain angered a section of Hindu community by painting the nude images of Hindu goddesses.

Beleaguered with legal cases and even death threats, Maqbool Fida Hussain went into a self imposed exile in 2006 and never returned to India again. In January 2010, he even accepted the citizenship of Qatar.

But in one of his last interviews, Hussain said that his heart would always remain in India.

M F Hussain also directed a few Hindi films -- Gajagamini and Meenaxi - A Tale of Three Cities with actresses Madhuri Dixit and Tabu respectively. His cinematic style was often criticized as too poetically theatrical. Hussain also painted the canvases of Madhuri Dixit -- his muse for a long time -- and Tabu and Amrita Rao.

Rest In Peace, Maqbool Fida Hussain.