In Janaury this year, Priyanka Chopra revealed that she will be essaying the role of spiritual leader and Osho's disciple Ma Anand Sheela in her next project. "I am developing a feature with Barry Levinson. He is an iconic American director. We are developing it (from the perspective of) Sheela who is this guru who originated from India. She was his right hand woman and she was devious. She created a whole cult in America. He was called Osho. I don't know if you've heard of him. It was amazing. I am developing that next for me to star in and produce," she had said.
However, we now hear that Ma Anand Sheela or Sheela Biernstiel wants Alia Bhatt and not Priyanka Chopra to play her role in a biopic. "I saw bits of a film that my sister was watching, and I thought, I looked like her when I was young. I asked my sister, ‘Did I look like her when I was young? Do you remember’? And she said, ‘Yes, you do’. I feel she has the spunk in her that I had. Spunk is very necessary and it is very natural, it is not artificial, not cosmetic, it is genuine," she told a leading daily.
Well, we wonder what Alia has to say on this!
For the unversed, the story of Ma Anand Sheela gained popularity after the success of the documentary Wild Wild Country - which charted the growth of Osho's community from India to setting up a cult in Oregon in the US. It highlighted the role that Sheela played in the growth of the community, and its downfall. When Priyanka announced the biopic, there were reports that Ma Anand Sheela sent her a legal notice. "I told her I do not give her permission to do [the] film because I have not chosen her... In Switzerland, we send legal notices very simply. I sent her an email which is accepted there as legal," she added when asked about it.
Claiming that she has heard back from Priyanka or team on that, Ma Anand Sheela signed off by saying, "No, never. Not even a courtesy letter that they received my notice but that’s not an issue, maybe she never had the opportunity to meet me or make time to meet me and it is no big issue... not everybody has the time to meet me."
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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