Big Ben on india time

“Having an Academy Award at home just means that when I am nominated for one more,the Oscar at home starts glowing,” laughs Kingsley,who got a nomination for The House of Sand and Fog in 2003. In February,he will be seen in two widely different movies — Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and Leena Yadav’s Teen Patti.

If Scorsese’s has Leonardo DiCaprio,Yadav’s has Amitabh Bachchan,Madhavan,Saira Mohan and Raima Sen. Teen Patti,which is largely shot in London,deals with gambling. Kingsley plays the role of “the world’s greatest mathematician” Perci Trachtenberg who meets the reclusive math genius Venkat (played by Amitabh Bachchan). “I took two days to read the script and agreed to do the role,” says Kingsley. And adds that the graph of his character,which is “stretched like a piece of elastic,as he flits in and out of the film from the beginning”,drew him to the movie. We could not tell if the tongue was in the cheek. “My role is of a listener and forgiver,because Mr Bachchan’s character is a troubled soul and is lost in his quest for the perfect formula,” says Kingsley.

After that,he wants to get cracking on his personal mission — the film on the Taj. “Quite simply put,opportunity presented itself so perfectly to me to come to India . After reintroducing myself to the Indian audience in Teen Patti,I am trying to fulfil my ambition of making a film on the building of the Taj,” he says excitedly. Incidentally,he has just finished an educational film,Thousand and One Inventions,on inventions in the Muslim world during the Middle Ages.

While in India,Kingsley plans to meet filmmakers — “I’m looking for a director who would be able to bring to life the passion of Shah Jahan” — and financiers for the movie,which is the debut project of his independent production house,SBK Productions. “I am aware of other films on the Taj,but mine will make an international event of the monument. We will approach it as an epic struggle and reveal more of Shah Jahan’s efforts in making the Taj. It would be filmed in English and should be ready by autumn 2010,” says Kingsley,who has just handed over the first draft of the script to actor Aishwarya Rai.