Mumbai: Sensational Mallika Sherawat will be an ascetic who befriends Jesus of Nazareth in a US film that revolves around a legend that he visited India. Filmmaker Drew Heriot's "The Aquarian Gospel" is about Jesus's life between the ages of 13 and 30, a period not documented in the Gospels when legend has it he traveled through India, Tibet and Persia.

Mallika, who went for a screen test in Los Angeles in February and was finalised for the role recently, plays a Muslim woman with two husbands and a lover in the film. The casting agent had visited India and a lot of other actors were reportedly in contention for the role.

Mallika will commence shooting for the film, set to release in 2008, in August.