Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan is all set to debut in a Malayalam film based on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, Bachchan’s co-star in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, a remake of the 1975 hit Sholay, will play the lead role in the film Kandahar planned for release by August during the Onam festival.

Big B with Mohanlal,Resul Pookutty,Mammooty

Major Ravi, a commando-turned filmmaker, is the director of the film in which Mohanlal, who recently joined the Territorial Army as a colonel, plays the role of Col Mahadevan. Mohanlal and Ravi met Bachchan, who was on a short visit to the Kerala port city, and discussed the project. Bachchan had expressed a desire to act in a Malayalam film during an interview to a television channel in Dubai in December.

The director narrated the story to him and he said he liked the storyline and wanted to read the script in full.  He plays the father of a passenger on the hijacked plane.”

This is Ravi’s fourth film after Keerthichakra and Kuruskshetra, both featuring Mohanlal, and Mission 90 Days, which told the real story of Ravi who tracked down the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. Mammootty playedRavi’s role in the film.

Storyline : The flight IC-814 of India’s flag carrier was hijacked by five Pakistani militants while on its way from Kathmandu to New Delhi and was forced to land in Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai before being taken to Kandahar where 186 passengers were kept hostages on board for a week and released in exchange of four extremists in Indian custody.

The film will be shot in Delhi and Nepal besides Kerala.Bachchan was in Kochi to attend a function where he handed over the Newsmaker of the Year 2009 award to Oscar winning sound technician Resul Pookutty. Bachchan wore a traditional ‘mundu’ and said he felt more comfortable in the single piece of cloth that has no buttons or any clips to hold it around the hip.

He also launched Jeevarogya, a health project of the Resul Pookutty Foundation and a Kochi-based private hospital, which will treat the poor and needy and donated Rs 11 lakhs to the foundation. ( KochiVibe article on Jeevarogya inauguration )