Aishwarya Rai starring in Bhopal disaster flick
Showbiz Desk

BOMBAY—It has taken a foreign producer and director to finally produce a film based on the forgotten 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal.Tentatively titled Windfall, the film will be produced by Zachary Coffin. Aishwarya Rai will be the executive producer and star in the suspense thriller. The story is set against world’s largest industrial disaster.
When contacted, Aishwarya Rai said, “It is a story of a young woman’s search for her father; her love for an American man and the problems she faces as a survivor of the disaster. It is an emotional flick and I had to be involved. I hope the film is able to draw attention to the needs of the victims in Bhopal, and to other people who have suffered injustice.”
On the lines of Erin Brockovich’s The Insider, Zachary Coffin says, “The film is unique and sure to hook viewers. Aishwarya was our first, last and only choice to play the lead, and I believe this will be the most inspiring performance of her career.”
CEO of Zachary Coffin Productions and partner of Coffin Capital, Coffin combines two diverse careers — art and business. “If you think this film will be depressing,” commented producer Coffin, “I dare say, you are wrong. This is a dramatic journey set against a chemical disaster. It paints a true picture of the incident in terms of the sufferings of the victims and the repercussions of the disaster. It is an international movie that has all the elements — mystery, romance, political manipulation, legal battles and a quest for truth — of a successful commercial flick.”
Zachary calls the Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal a “Hiroshima of the chemical industry” and says that it is the largest industrial disaster in history. Shooting of the film will begin this year end with approximately two-thirds of it being filmed in North America and one-third in various locations of India. According to industry sources, researcher and producer Zachary is in the US to finalise all the script details. The grapevine has it that Zachary Coffin is planning to rope in Oscar winning director Robert Redford, who is also an environmentalist.
The remaining starcast of the film is yet to be finalised. It is learnt that the producer was keen to cast Rani Mukherjee in an important role in the same film. But when he approached Rani for the role, the actress turned it down, saying, “I don’t do second leads.”