PREITY ZINTA
………….sure of playing Raja Ravi Varma’s muse.

Classic painter Raja Ravi Varma’s muse, Sugunabai, will be portrayed by Preity Zinta in a movie to be directed by the National-Award-winning director Shaji Karun. Just a year ago, Madhuri Dixit had been considered for the role and Ajay Devgan was to play the painter (1848-1906).

Devgan had assented but Dixit dilly-dallied. Eventually, she chose to make her comeback, after a five-year hiatus, with Yash Raj banner’s Aaja Nachle. Based in Thiruvananthapuram, Karun has an international reputation as an excellent cinematographer besides having directed Piravi which bagged over 15 awards at international film festivals. Karun’s new films (including one in Hinglish) have been disappointing. For the Ravi Varma bio-pic tentatively titled Suryamukhi, he had been scouting for the cast since the last two years. Sugunabai, a woman of Goan-Maharashtrian lineage, had posed for several mythological figures painted by Varma.
Today, all his works are priceless.

Zinta has been veering towards offbeat projects lately -like Rituparno Ghosh’s Last Lear and the new project by Jahnu Barua, Har Pal. The long search for the muse finally ends, but the actor who will portray the legendary painter is still to be announced. As it happens, she is much in the art news currently. Talk is that the Delhi-based painter and former Miss India Anjana Kuthiala will do a series of paintings of Preity Zinta in various avatars.

Apparently, Preity’s mother, Neelu had met Anjana during the artist’s exhibition in Mumbai recently. Neelu was scanning through her work, when she said, if she could have Preity’s portrait commissioned in a traditional look for their living room.

Preity Zinta will do a special photo shoot for Anjana. The portrait for her living-room will be a mix of Maharani Gayatri Devi and Preity’s look from Veer Zaara. The other canvases in the series will be inspired by women of courage like Razia Sultan and Rani of Jhansi.