Mammootty to star in a film on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination

After two Tamil films on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, a third big-screen interpretation of the tragedy is on the cards, this time with superstar Mammootty.

After two Tamil films on Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, a third big-screen interpretation of the tragedy is on the cards, this time in Malayalam with matinee idol Mammootty in the main lead.

HT Image

The film is titled Mission 60 Days and Mammootty plays a special investigation office named Major Sivaram. It is expected to treat the theme very differently from its Tamil predecessors, Kutrapathirikai (Chargesheet) and Kuppi (Cyanide Capsule).

Major Ravi, a former Indian army officer, who earlier made the Malayalam film Keerthi Chakra with Mohanlal, is directing the film -- which deals with the May 21, 1991 assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by a suicide bomber in the Tamil Nadu town of Sriperumbudur.

Keerthi Chakra dealt with the army's counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir. Ravi re-made it in Tamil, too, under the title Aran (Fortification).

Mission 60 Days will be shot in Chennai and Bangalore, among other places.