Mirror had earlier reported (August 22) that Omung Kumar and Ashutosh Gowariker are gearing up to kick off films on Maharaja Jam Sahib Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, the ruler of Nawanagar, a princely state in British India, who had provided shelter to hundreds of abandoned Polish children during World War II. And while reports claim that Ashutosh had bought the rights to the story from the Maharaja's descendants, Omung has scored a head-start on him by releasing the first look of his English-Polish production, titled The Good Maharaja, featuring Sanjay Dutt in the title role. When asked if he knows about Ashutosh's film on the same subject, Omung says evasively, “I read about it but I don't know the details. What I know is that I have been working on my script for a year-and-a-half and have even put together a book on it. We have done a look test with Sanjay and he and (filmmaker) Sandeep Singh have met Polish government officials for shooting permissions. We are also in touch with Indian officials. We have to create the trucks and trams used in that period, as well as orchestrate the journey of the ships... How the refugees landed in Mumbai, and finally in Jamnagar, we have to carefully cover every aspect of the story.“

The prep also involves an extensive session on the Maharaja's look? “We have photographs of the Maharaja for reference. We will take certain creative liberties but are trying to keep things as authentic as possible. Sanjay looks regal and it was his idea to do this role and I wanted to direct it because it's a superb story,“ Omung signs off.