Ben Kingsley to play Mogul emperor in Taj

He won an Oscar playing Mohandas Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's 1982 biopic of the Indian leader. Twenty seven years on, Ben Kingsley looks set to delve into subcontinental history books once again as part of a new project which will see him star as the Mogul emperor who built the Taj Mahal. The actor will play Shah Jahan in Taj, a $25-$30m (£15m-£18m) project which he is also producing, his firm SBK Pictures said in a statement today. Indian superstar and former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, has agreed to appear as Mumtaz Mahal, Jahan's favoured wife and the woman whose death in childbirth inspired the construction of the world-famous building between 1632 and 1654. "With my passion for India and the Taj Mahal now becoming one of the seven wonders of the World, I am compelled to ask 'why' and 'how' this scream of grief frozen in marble came into being," Kingsley said in the statement. "It is an indelible monument to passion and love. How did the building evolve in the first place, that is the question we're looking at." British playwright and novelist David Ashton has penned the screenplay for Taj, which does not yet have a director. SBK Pictures said in the statement that it planned to meet with Indian investors next month. Kingsley is a popular figure there due to his role in Gandhi, and Rai's involvement is also likely to attract potential financial backers. Kingsley's wife, Brazilian actor Daniela Lavender, is set to play Persian princess Kandahari Begum, Shah Jahan's first wife, in the film. Shah Jahan reigned over the Mogul empire in the Indian subcontinent between 1628 and 1658. His rule is considered something of a golden age, and at the time of his death in 1666, the empire is said to have spanned 750m acres, about nine-tenths of the size of modern India. It did not end well, however: the emperor was deposed by his son Aurangzeb in 1658 after falling ill, and confined to the citadel of Agra until his death. According to SBK, shooting on Taj is scheduled for autumn 2010.