Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai: Political films may not be the order of Friday in Bollywood…not when slick flicks about neta-giri like Govind Nihalani's Dev and Mani Ratnam's Dil Se have come and drowned.

Lately, we had Jagmohan Mundhra trying unsuccessfully to put together a bio-pic on Sonia Gandhi. And yet political thrillers are a favoured genre.

Mani Shankar who made one of Bollywood's early films 16 December from that genre is ready with Mukhbiir, a slick-fest about a young government spy's attempts to foil a politician's assassination.

Now it's (political) party-time for Anubhav Sinha who made Dus, one of the slickest espionage thrillers on this side of The Day Of The Jackal. Anubhav whose last film Cash crashed is ready to roll with a very hush-hush project that will blow the lid on the controversies and conspiracies behind the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

Anubhav and research team have been gathering material for months on the entire complex manoeuvres that resulted in the shocking death of Rajiv.

They have apparently chanced upon some startling and hitherto-unrevealed facts on the gruesome tragedy. "It's true," Anubhav confesses. "I'm doing a feature film on this subject.

It would be an entire celluloid investigation of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, tackling questions that were never asked, let alone answered. I hope to shoot and complete the film by the end of next year."

Anubhav is hopeful that the Gandhi family would be brought into the loop for the project. The crucial question of who'll play Rajiv is irrelevant to the director at the moment because the film begins where the protagonist's life ends.

However, Anubhav hopes to rope in a huge star like Sanjay Dutt or Abhishek Bachchan to play Rajiv Gandhi.