He has been the moving spirit behind Hollywood box office juggernauts like Star Wars ? The Empire Strikes Back, Never Say Never Again (the James Bond film) and Robocop II. But director Irvin Kershner is on an Indian odyssey, where he is on a recce to not just scout for locations for his new film Princess and The Wizard, but also to scout for talent for the film.

The film is being produced by Dr Arjun Daluvoy, a US-based surgeon, who is also the founder of World Entertainment Media.

Why would a big Hollywood director want to work in India? To be sure, Roland Joffe tried it earlier with City of Joy. A few others too have India on their radar. “India has international quality talent in all aspects of film making ? writers, producer, line producers, camera men and skilled and unskilled labour. India makes 1,200 movies a year. Therefore, there is an abundance of workers. Besides, the movie will involve skilled Bollywood technicians, apart from artistes,” explains Kershner, who also visited Rajasthan, Punjab and Mysore for his film.

“I came to Mumbai and we left for Rajasthan immediately. We traversed the length and breadth of that state. It could be a very good location for me because of the sand, the desert, the water, the forts and the palaces. I saw some remarkable places in Rajasthan. I am seeing more places. It’s only the beginning. I have been here for a few days,” he says, before leaving to look at other locations.

The plot for Kershner’s movie sounds like one of the Vijay Bhatt fantasy tales of yore. “My film is a fairy tale about a princess. The father wants to get her married before he dies and she doesn’t like any man. So all the kings and maharajahs come there because she is very beautiful. But the bad wizard comes and steals her away for his king. That’s how the adventure begins,” says Kershner. Shades of the Ramayan? “This movie is said to be a Middle East fairy tale, a romantic comedy full of adventure and visual effects,” adds Kershner. According to Dr Daluvoy, some top Bollywood stars are being considered for the project. “Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen, Preity Zinta or Mallika Sherawat ? we are considering many names, but haven’t selected anyone to approach,” he says.

Dr Daluvoy wants to promote movies in India and, coupled with patriotism, the cheap skilled labour available here is attracting him to his roots. “We want to promote Hollywood business in India. Indo-American trade will be promoted because Hollywood movies cost over $ 100 million per movie. But if the same movie is made in India, it will cost $ 32-40 million or even less. So I am convincing Hollywood people to come to India,” he says with a smile.

The film will be distributed by 21st Century World Wide Distribution Inc. Princess and the Wizard has Giles Masters (The Mummy Returns, Da Vinci Code) as the art director and Richard Kline (King Kong, Camelot) as the director of photography. The music will be composed by Oscar winner Gerard Schumann (Lawrence of Arabia ).

Kershner, meanwhile, is also a creative producer of a Broadway theatre production, a musical based on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He also does still photography and recently held his first solo exhibition in Manhattan called “A Positive View of Negative Space? colour photographs using the changing seasons affecting the Manhattan landscape”.

Kershner’s movies

A Fine Madness
Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward

The raid on entebbe
Charles Bronson, Peter Finch

The return of a man called horse
Richard Harris

Eyes of Laura Mars
Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones

Robocop 2
Peter Weller

Never Say Never Again
Sean Connery

The Empire Strikes Back
Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill