Amitabh Bachchan at the launch of a jewellery line in Mumbai on Tuesday. (Fotocorp)

Calcutta, Jan. 24: March might be Amitabh Bachchan’s busiest month. As the industry buzz grows louder about the Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding in the third month of the year, papa Bachchan has gone ahead and signed his first English film.

To be directed by Rituparno Ghosh and produced by Planman Motion Pictures, the film will star him as a “Shakespearean stage actor”.

“We are waiting for the final confirmation of dates from Mr Bachchan as there is a wedding in the family. But his office has said that it (the shooting) will be sometime in March,” Planman Motion Pictures CEO Subho Sekhar Bhattacharya told The Telegraph today.

The untitled film, scripted by Rituparno, has been adapted from a story written by Utpal Dutt. “It will focus on relationships among people from different age groups. But the film is about Mr Bachchan’s character,” added Bhattacharya.

“Rituparno had written the story in Hindi but we felt that it would turn out better in English. When he (Rituparno) proposed the idea to Mr Bachchan, he liked it too and felt the film should be made in English.”

The story is set in Calcutta. The production team is toying with three locations and the city is one of them. But there’s a good chance that Bachchan will give Calcutta a miss. “We might not shoot in Calcutta due to logistical reasons. In that case, we will put up sets elsewhere,” said Bhattacharya.

The only other actor to have been signed for the film is Arjun Rampal, who will have “a lot of interaction” with Bachchan. Two Bollywood actresses and two “leading actors from Tollywood” will be finalised soon. The team is also looking at a possible casting from south India. Being in English, the film offers an opportunity for a pan-Indian casting.

Among the technical team, Planman has decided on cinematographer Abhik Mukhopadhyay who has worked with Bachchan earlier in Bunty Aur Babli. Shooting for the film starts by February-end and Planman is planning a worldwide release.

Bachchan would be the biggest casting coup for the Delhi-based company led by Arindam Chaudhuri, which debuted in Bollywood two years back with the box office flop Rok Sako To Rok Lo. With Rituparno, Planman has produced the black-and-white Dosor and the forthcoming Sunglass.