Amitabh Bachchan has been approached to play King Suddhodana in a biopic on the religious leader

If all goes well then you may see Amitabh Bachchan playing the role of King Suddhodana, the father of Siddhartha Gautama (later known as the Lord Buddha) in Pan Nalin’s ambitious biopic Buddha.

The filmmakers of Buddha have approached Big B to essay the role of Buddha’s father, the great leader of the Shakyas, who lived in ancient India (now in southern Nepal).

“We have approached Amitabh Bachchan to play Suddhodana,” confirmed the film’s producer Mihir Upadhayay. “We have had a meeting with his secretary once. Now we are going to meet him to pitch the script. Hopefully, we will get a nod from him.”

King Suddhodana plays a pivotal role in the early life of Lord Buddha and the film aims to authentically portray the relationship between the father and the son. According to the scriptures, it was prophesised that Buddha would become a universal monarch.

However, if he came across four sights—that of an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a monk, he would instead become a great sage. Suddhodana  tried to keep Buddha shielded from the outside world so that he would never come across these four sights. However, his plan did not work and Buddha became a sage, renouncing his luxurious life.

Coming back to Big B, why was he approached for the role? “Suddhodana was a very influential man—as a ruler and as well as the head of the family—and who else can play this character better than Amitabh Bachchan.”

Interestingly, director Pan Nalin’s Buddha might see the Bachchan-Aishwarya duo together in a film again as the filmmakers are still trying to get a yes from the actress who has been approached to play the role of princess Yasodhara.