Film on Gandhi’s death conspiracy being shot in Sri Lanka

Solar Eclipse: Depths of Darkness, an action-packed thriller based on the dark conspiracy to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi is being shot in Sri Lanka. 

The film featuring Om Puri, Nasser and Ananth Naranayan Mahadevan among a host of international stars, is co-produced by the Indian-owned Nugen Media of Dubai and the veteran Lankan film maker Chandran Rutnam, whose Film Locations Services has made Lanka a preferred location for shooting Hollywood movies.

Directed by the award-winning Algerian filmmaker Karim Traidia and Pankaj Sehgal, the movie is set in India immediately before and after the partition. Solar Eclipse is about three over-worked police and intelligence officers in Delhi, Bombay and Pune, who come across a plot to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi and decide to act in the best interests of the newly independent India. The film is based on actual events and personalities, though it is weaved around a lot of fiction to infuse drama.  

USP of the film, however, is that it showcases an interesting parallel between the lives and the assassination of two great leaders, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln — how their violent deaths eventually led to the unification of their respective countries and the establishment of a secular and stable democracy in the face of horrendous violence and seemingly entrenched religious or racial divisions.

Ajayan Vincent, son of the veteran cinematographer A Vincent, is the director of photography, the dances are choreographed by Saroj Khan and the musical score is by newcomer Prashant Pillay who had learnt his ropes under Oscar winner A R Rahman.