Taj Mahal and the South African script

Renowned South African freedom fighter and writer Fatima Meer is writing the script for a film on the historic Taj Mahal, to be directed by Akbar Khan.

She said she had been working on the script and all the related characters of the Mughal period were being dramatised in it.

Prof Fatima Meer, who had authored the biography of the South African leader Nelson Mandela, Higher Than Hope, said she has also signed up with M U V Technology, Madras, to produce a TV animation film set in 17th century South Africa.

She said she had already handed over the script for a four-hour long tele animation film portraying the relationship between the Khoi Khoi tribe of South Africa and the Dutch. The story is about Krotoa, a tribal girl, whose intimacy with a Dutch militant led to the geographical discovery of Cape Town in the 17th century. The production of the film will be completed within a year,

Prof Meer estimates the budget of the film at Rs 33 billion. Though she wrote the script, she admits that it was K Jayakumar, a senior I A S Officer of the Kerala cadre, who fine-tuned it. The animation film will be telecast on three television channels in South Africa as also some Indian channels.

Earlier, filmmaker Shyam Benegal had produced Making Of The Mahatma based on Prof Meer's book, Apprenticeship Of A Mahatma.

UNI