Katrina in Ketan Mehta's next

After making biopics on Sardar Patel and Mangal Pandey, Ketan Mehta, the director of classics such as Mirch Masala and Maya Memsaab (whose last film Rang Rasiya, which depicts the life of the father of calendar-art, Ravi Raja Verma, has been stuck in the cans for nearly two years), has moved on to another biopic entitled Noor.u00a0It is the legendary story of Noor Inayat Khan and we have it from very reliable sources that Mehta has zeroed in on Katrina Kaif to play the enigmatic woman's part.

Mehta says, "Noor was an Indian princess who became a British spy during World War 2. This will be an Indo-British-French production." He is making this film at the end of this year.u00a0Mehta has another biopic planned for early next year.

He is going to shoot the story of the Bihari ‘Mountain Man', the poor destitute labourer Dashrath Manjhi, who spent 22 years of his life single-handedly digging a road into a mountain with a hammer and chisel after his wife died because the mountain prevented him from taking her to the nearest hospital 70 km away from his village near the town of Gaya.

Inspired by the man's indomitable spirit, Mehta informs, "I've named it The Mountain Man. I plan to cast a newcomer in the role. So I've two extremely antithetical biopics lined up as soon as Rang Rasiya is released."

Mehta is all praise for his onscreen Ravi Raja. "Randeep Hooda reminds me of the young Naseer from my Hero Hiralal. We're not releasing Rang Rasiya as a small film. It's an expensive film. Like the Mountain Man, I am now releasing Rang Rasiya as its sole distributor."u00a0