"Direction is a difficult job"- Ben Kingsley

Krishna Bhanji, who is known all over the world as actor Sir Ben Kingsley, who has had his strong roots in India, is all set now to don the grease paint to play yet another legend- Shah Jahan. Twenty seven years after he rose to fame playing the part in Richard Attenborough"s film after playing the role of Mohandas Gandhi way back two decades ago. Now he is all set to play the important personality who paid his tribute to love by ordering the construction of the monument Taj Mahal.

Though the media is agog with the breaking news that Aishwarya Bachchan is all set to play the role of his wife Mumtaz Mahal in his epic film, when I met him for this interview in Goa where he has come to take Master Classes during the IFFI, Ben denied that Aishwarya has been signed for the role.

“I am planning to raise the funds to start my project. I know there is great interest in the venture. The script was readied only four days ago and it has been sent to Aishwarya Bachchan, who is yet to say confirm for working in the project", he quipped as a matter of fact. However, Ben confessed that his real life wife will be playing his first wife Nasari begum in the film.

Ben confessed that he has always been inspired by the rich culture and heritage of India and stated that Indian culture and infrastructure are being exported all over the world. He is stated that he will be making his ambitious film Taj on a budget of 27 million U.S dollars. Ben admitted that it had been his ardent wish to make a great film in India after Gandhi.

Ben acknowledged that that he had a great experience working with an actor of the caliber of Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi film Teen Patti. “Mr Amitabh Bachchan is wise, kind, intelligent and a joy to work with. I also found working with actors of the caliber of Nina Gupta and Roshan Seth extremely exhilarating", Ben added.

He also confessed that though it is true that some actors are forced to play the same role again and again, he says that it helped him swim the troubled waters because you cannot replicate Gandhi again and again. Ben admitted that he is quite happy as an actor and said that he has no plans to direct his project because he finds direction a very difficult job and hence not his cup of tea.