Darsheel Safary signs a new film

Priyadarshan is all set direct the Taare Zameen Par star Darsheel Safary. And he has completely revamped the original Iranian film which he's supposed to remake. Says Priyan, "I'm not blindly adapting the Iranian film Children Of Heaven. I'm moving completely away from the original material to set the story in Assam with the insurgency as the backdrop."

Curiously, there's an unofficial Hindi adaptation of Children Of Heaven titled Salaam Bachche. Priyan isn't aware of that. "I saw the Iranian film and its Singaporean version Home Run. I'm not following Majid Majidi's screenplay from the Iranian film at all. I'm only retaining the core of the original. I'm Indianising the screenplay completely, changing and adding more characters."

And giving Darsheel company in the film would be a new child-actress named Zia who plays his sister. Priyan chose Zia from many number of hopefuls who auditioned for Darsheel's sister's role.

Atul Kulkarni and Rituparna Sengupta play the two kids' parents. Priyan wanted Rahul Bose for the father's part. The dates didn't work out. Says Priyan, "This is my first Hindi film with kids in the lead. I am really looking forward to it. I start shooting from October 10."