ABCL’s next, Legend of Kunal, is set in the Ashokan era After having spoken enough about multimillionaire production houses and their billion dollar deals, here’s a tad bit about ABCL, Amitabh Bachchan’s production house. ABCL had maintained a low profile ever since it got back on its feet but the production house’s next film, Legend of Kunal, is a biggie. The film, being directed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi, is a periodical on Kunal, Emperor Ashoka’s son. The star cast is equally grand, with Bachchan in the role of the Emperor and Tabu as his powerful wife, Tishyarakshitra. Arjun Rampal will take on the character of the protagonist Kunal and Amrita Rao will play the role of his wife Kanchanmala.Dr Dwivedi says that though his film is based on history, he has combined it with fiction. “When you can’t confirm the historical data available, it is called a legend. I have tried to reconstruct the story based on facts available through different sources, especially through Buddhist epics,” says the director best known for his tele-series, Chanakya.The film will go on the floors by early 2009. “The nature of the film will be grand for one cannot make a historical without grandeur,” he says, adding that the most difficult part in the film will be the reconstruction of the monuments of the Mauryan era. “The monuments from the Mughal era are right here for us to see but there’s hardly anything from Ashoka’s time. We will need to work on all of that.”
