Kingsley picks Rai for Taj Mahal film

Aishwarya Rai will star in a film about the Taj Mahal, India's famous marble monument to love.

Ben Kingsley, who is producing the movie, says Rai agreed to do the film when he spoke to her during the shooting of "The Last Legion," a Hollywood epic about the Roman Empire.

Film credits for Rai, a former Miss World, also include Gurinder Chadha's "Bride & Prejudice."

Kingsley's production house is working with a scriptwriter on the project, the 63-year-old actor told The Times of India newspaper in an interview.

The Taj Mahal was built by Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan between 1632 and 1654 for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Soon after its completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son and imprisoned at the nearby Agra Fort.

"The movie is on the building of the Taj Mahal," Kingsley said. "The romance will also include Shah Jahan's isolation for years in a prison cell."

It will likely be filmed next year in the northern Indian city of Agra, which is home to the Taj Mahal, he told the newspaper.

Kingsley is well known in India for his Oscar-winning role in the 1982 film "Gandhi," directed by Richard Attenborough.

He has also starred in "House of Sand and Fog," "Sexy Beast" and "Bugsy."