Class and Bad Girl-fame actor Anjali Sivaraman will play the lead role in Mira Nair's ambitious new biopic, Amri, about Indian artist Amrita Sher-Gil, with Jaideep Ahlawat and Priyanka Chopra set to feature in prominent roles. The filmmaker unveiled the first look of the film on Tuesday, revealing the principal cast.
Amrita Sher-Gil cast details revealed
Apart from Anjali, the film will also star Emily Watson as Amrita's mother, Marie-Antoinette Gottesman; Jaideep Ahlawat as her father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil; Krisztian Csakvari as Victor Egan; Anjana Vasan as Indira Sher-Gil; Jim Sarbh as Karl Khandalavala; and Priyanka Chopra as Madame Azurie.
Priyanka is also executive producing the movie, which is set across Hungary, France and India in the early twentieth century to trace the worlds of Europe and India that shaped the artist's imagination and her artistic vision.
Kerala-born Anjali, 31, made her breakthrough with Netflix's Class in 2023, before playing the lead in Bad Girl last year. Amri chronicles the story of Amrita Sher-Gil, a pioneer in modern Indian art who rattled the establishment with her bold imagery and life. The biopic has been something of a dream project for Mira Nair, known for internationally-acclaimed projects such as Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, and The Namesake.
“Every film I've made in the last several decades has been inspired by the art of Amrita Sher-Gil. She taught me how to see. She absorbed the best European training to distil the soul of India in a way that no one ever had - it is this distillation that has informed my own cinema from the beginning. The bravery of her palette, colour, and framing of the ordinary people of India has eternally moved me,” Mira Nair said in a media statement.
Who was Amrita Sher-Gil?
{{/usCountry}}“Every film I've made in the last several decades has been inspired by the art of Amrita Sher-Gil. She taught me how to see. She absorbed the best European training to distil the soul of India in a way that no one ever had - it is this distillation that has informed my own cinema from the beginning. The bravery of her palette, colour, and framing of the ordinary people of India has eternally moved me,” Mira Nair said in a media statement.
Who was Amrita Sher-Gil?
{{/usCountry}}Now considered one of the greatest women artists of the 20th century, Amrita Sher-Gil died at the age of 28. The youngest student to ever be admitted in the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Paris, educated and trained in the conventions of European tradition, Amrita evolved a personal aesthetic that highlighted the everyday life of ordinary women and men in India.
Her paintings, now highly valuable, give a glimpse into India and its women of the time. Some of her most famous artworks include Two Women, The Bride's Toilet, Group of Three Girls, Girl in Blue, Sleeping Woman, and Hill Women.
All about the biopic
Amri is currently completing production across India and Hungary. Mira Nair co-wrote the film with Clara Royer and also produced it with Samudrika Arora and Michael Nozik. Amri is a Mirabai, Samscape, Papertown Production in association with KNMA and Miramax.
(With PTI inputs)
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