Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan part of India's first 4D bollywood historical film?

Director V Ganesh Kumar who is busy preparing for India's first mainline Bollywood 4D film would like Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan to play the lead roles in the film. 

Says the veteran director Kumar openly voicing his opinion, "This is a historical film based on true incidents, wars and conflicts as recorded in history books that will appeal to kids as well as adults. It has a great educational value for kids as well and has a huge audience both in India and abroad -  in the Gulf and other Middle East countries. My first choice for the lead roles is Salman and Hrithik and I have made my preferences clear to my producer. It is up to the producer to take a call depending on budgets and schedules. The film will also be released in a normal cinema-scope version and a 3D version, as there are not many 4D equipped screens in the country."

The film is produced by a Pune-based production house Ganesh Saraswati Films and directed by a well-known director from the south V Ganesh Kumar. Ganesh Saraswati Films is a tie-up between V Ganesh Kumar and Anand Saraswati Films of Pune owned partly by an NCP politician from the city.

Dismissing reports that the film which has a projected budget of Rs 120 crore is a low-budget film, Kumar said, "I am not at liberty to discuss the budget, you have to speak to the producer. But we have a decent budget. Who says Rs 120 crore for the making of a film is a low-budget? Many production houses inflate their budgets - everyone knows that even the big banners make their films at almost half the budgets they claim or project. It depends on the star cast which is not yet finalized. We are still casting and talking to various actors. This film has a huge cast and we will have 2-3 well-known male actors preferably in a super-star category as part of this project. It depends on dates and availability. We have a projected release time frame of April 2015 or November 2015 for the film and have to juggle shooting schedules accordingly. The film is expected to go on floors in April or May 2014."

Deliberating on the budget issue Kumar explains, "Don 2 was made with a budget of Rs 70 crore, Devdas was reportedly produced with a budget of Rs 50 crores. Jodhaa Akbar was made with a budget of Rs 40 crore. Ra One was made on a whooping budget of Rs 125 crore with a further Rs 52 crore spent on promotion. My Name is Khan was made with Rs 40 crore and Rs 150 crore was reportedly spent on the Rajnikant-starrer Robot. You can call our project a medium-budget film, but whoever says it's a low-budget film has gone bonkers," Kumar fumed.

The film "The Last Emperor" has a projected making budget of Rs 120 crore and will be shot pre-dominantly in Maharashtra, but will also have schedules in Andhra Pradesh and other parts of South India. The film also has a mention of the Nizam of Hyderabad and a huge set is being planned on the outskirts of Hyderabad to replicate and old 17th century fort.

Afghanistan-born, Bhopal-educated model and actress Arshi Khan has been finalized for this project though Kumar is reluctant to give further details. "We will officially announce the entire star cast at one go and not in bits and pieces," Kumar says adding, I will not comment on one or two actors. We have finalized a part of the cast, but casting is still on."

The well-endowed and voluptuous Arshi Khan who has now made Mumbai her home says, "It's a pleasure to be part of this project. The film covers a historical era and will portray the historical chronology of events in the late 16 and early 17th century in Maharashtra and south India. Maharashtra was ruled by the Mughals till the early 17th century after which the Marathas were the predominant power in the region. The film will portray the rule of the Nizamshahi of Ahmadnagar, Adilshah of Bijapur and the Qutubshah of Golkonda as well as the emergence of the Maratha kingdom in the mid 17th century as seen by British soldier. It also covers the death of the last Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1707 after an exhausting 27 years of futile war against the emerging Maratha power."