Monica Bellucci to play Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI -- Monica Bellucci will star in a film about Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who married into India's most powerful political dynasty and now heads the country's ruling party, the Times of India reported Tuesday.

The Italian actress agreed to take on the role after reading the script, producer Sunanda Murli Manohar was quoted as saying.

"Her confirmation finally puts a seal on the deal," Manohar said. "She is excited about the prospect of playing Sonia Gandhi."

Jagmohan Mundhra, a well-known Indian filmmaker, will direct the movie. Shooting is expected to begin in September.

Neither the filmmakers nor Bellucci were immediately available for comment. Bellucci, 37, starred in 2004's "The Passion of the Christ."

Gandhi's husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated in a 1991 suicide bombing.

His mother, Indira Gandhi -- the country's longest-serving prime minister -- also was assassinated, and his grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister.

Sonia Gandhi refused the prime minister's job when her Congress party and its allies won elections in May 2004 because of opposition from Hindu nationalists, who argued that a person of non-Indian heritage should not lead the country.

Mundhra's "Provoked," starring Aishwarya Rai, was screened at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

The filmmaker told the Times of India that he had also considered Rai and Preity Zinta, another Bollywood leading lady, for the Gandhi project.