It has been more than six years since Mira Nair’s last outing, A Suitable Boy (2020); and the filmmaker is finally gearing up for her next — a biopic on modernist painter Amrita Sher-Gil. The large-scale international production will kick off in Amritsar this week with a recce. Nair will base her unit in the city to shoot key portions for two months, until March, before the project moves to Europe for its second schedule.

Sources close to the production reveal that the international cast and crew will soon arrive in Punjab, while extensive logistical preparations are underway to recreate early 20th-century settings integral to Sher-Gil’s life. “Right now it’s just recce. The shoot begins a bit later. Punjab is central to Amrita Sher-Gil’s story, and Mira wanted to begin the film on that note,” explains a source, adding that the director has been closely involved in scouting locations and detailing the period.