Ashutosh finds no face to fit Buddha

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Ashutosh Gowariker and his co-producer B.K. Modi have shelved their magnum opus Buddha for a while. Soon after the duo announced their plans of making the biopic, they launched a website, www.buddha-movie.com [3], to scout for actors to play the divine protagonist. But even after going through the profiles and videos of over 6,000 aspirants, Gowariker still hasn’t found his Buddha.
According to a source associated with the movie, the producers have shut down the pre-production unit. “They had started a unit at the J.W. Marriott hotel, where the search for the lead actor was on. But only a few days back they shut down all operations,” he says.
Ashutosh had even finalised an international crew that includes big names like Karl Walter Lindenlaub (cinematography), Jarrod Linton (pre-visualisation), David Ward (script-screenplay), David Russel (storyboard artist), Glenn Boswell (action), April Ferry (costumes), Dileep Singh Rathore (co-producer and line producer) and Nitin Desai (art) for Buddha. The film which focuses on the life of Prince Siddhartha and his journey to enlightenment, was scheduled to start by the year end.
It was planned as a bilingual project to be made in both Hindi and English. The sources further add, “Dr Modi and his co-producer Dileep Singh Rathore have paid off all the dues of the technical crew and told them that the project has been put on hold until they find the right face for Buddha.”
At present the Ashutosh is working on the post-production of his next release Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey with Abhishek Bachchan and Deepika Padukone.