It has been in the news for a while that Alia could perhaps pitch in to don the character of Ma Anand Sheela – who was a close aide of Baba Rajneesh, also referred to as Osho. While the web series is rumoured to be bankrolled by Karan Johar, Kapoor and Sons director Shakun Batra may wield the baton, it was the presence of Alia’s close friend and Karan’s close aide Ayan Mukerji at one of the meetings that also raised a few eyebrows “Alia is comfortable working with Ayan, but then it will be a call that both Karan and Aamir will need to make. Shakun has been doing some work on the project, which is slated to be a biopic on the life of Osho and Alia’s name has been taken in whispers even around Aamir Khan and Karan Johar with regards to this project.
Not long ago, The Osho International Foundation has sent a notice stating that “use of any intellectual property rights owned by the foundation requires prior authorisation from the Foundation. Various copyrighted books and audio-video recordings of Osho including Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic and Glimpses of Golden Childhood etc cannot be used by anyone without authorisation.”
Alia Bhatt
The Foundation has clearly stated that any filmmaker wanting to make anything on the life of Osho should first seek their permission to do so. The controversial Godman’s brush with Bollywood includes the likes of Late Vinod Khanna, late Parveen Babi and filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt.
Mahesh Bhatt’s exit from the Osho camp was not a very good one with the filmmaker claiming that Rajneesh had even threatened to destroy him. So will Alia really go ahead and sign up for the bio-series, remains to be seen.
— Sanskriti Media
HT28/29
