Tabu Teams Up With The Big B ….Again For Their First Historical Period Epic

For those of her anxious fans who’ve been wondering when the resplendent super-reclusive Tabu would sign another film, the wait is over. Tabu has said yes to a big lavish historical , a bio-pic on the life of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka where she’ll play his all-powerful wife who brought the kingdom to its knees.

And playing her royal husband is none other than the Big. B…their second remarkable project together after Cheeni Kam.

Though they belong to totally different generations and have done a generation-challenged and challenging love story together , fate seems to have bonded Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu is a strange inextricable clasp.

After doing Cheeni Kam a completely contemporary take on marriage and gender equations, the Big B and Tabu now go back to several centuries for a film on the life of Emperor Ashoka .

Entitled The Legend Of Kunal the film is to be directed by Chandraprakash Diwedi. It will be produced by Mr Bachchan’s company AB Corp Ltd

What comes as a surprise is to know that the progressively-reclusive Hyderabad-based Tabu has finally given the nod to a film after almost a year, her first since Balki’s Cheeni Kam which was not an easy project to go through for either the actress or the crew.

Chandraprakash Diwedi, completely consumed by scripting 52 episodes of the Upanishad for television, says he had no difficulty bringing the Cheeni Kam pair together again. “Tabu didn’t hesitate a moment in saying yes to the role of Emperor Ashok’s powerful wife Tishyarakshita, so powerful she swayed the entire Mauryan empire with her beauty and politics .We needed an actress with the strength of conviction.Tishyarakshita is a unique character in Indian literature. Such an extraordinary and enigmatic character never found expression in our cinema.”

Interestingly when last year Raj Kumar Santoshi was planning a film on Emperor Ashoka he had cast Ajay Devgan and Bipasha Basu in the two roles.Santoshi abandoned the idea.

Says Dr Diwedi, “History and its cinematic treatment demand the characters to be true to their antecedents. And Emperor Ashoka who’s caught in his twilight years in my film had to be played by Bachchan Saab. Only he possesses the gravity sobriety wisdom and personality along with being the age required. I wouldn’t make Ashoka without him. As for Tabu, she plays his young fiery assertive wife. She’s an actress I’ve wanted to work with for a very long time.Again, only she could play Tishyarakshita.”

“It’s a big responsibility, not only to history but also to Bachchan Saab who has never in his long and distinguished career played a historical character. Isn’t that ironical? It’s also a responsibility because after Cheeni Kam, audiences would want to see what has been done with the very unusual and striking pair of Bachchan Saab and Tabu. I can’t afford to slip up.”

Dr Diwedi is just about wrapping up the very complicated process of writing the Upanishad for television which his wife the very talented Mandira will direct.

“I’m now devoting all my time to The Legend Of Kunal. I’ll be accompanying Bachchan Saab to Bodh Gaya in Bihar, the birthplace of Buddha, for a visit. My film deals with those years when the warrior Ashok reforms into a saint . I need to get both Bachchan Saab and myself into the mood.”

By Subhash K Jha