It has been more than six years since Mira Nair’s last outing, A Suitable Boy (2020); and the filmmaker is finally gearing up for her next — a biopic on modernist painter Amrita Sher-Gil. The large-scale international production will kick off in Amritsar this week with a recce. Nair will base her unit in the city to shoot key portions for two months, until March, before the project moves to Europe for its second schedule.

Sources close to the production reveal that the international cast and crew will soon arrive in Punjab, while extensive logistical preparations are underway to recreate early 20th-century settings integral to Sher-Gil’s life.

“Right now it’s just recce. The shoot begins a bit later. Punjab is central to Amrita Sher-Gil’s story, and Mira wanted to begin the film on that note,” explains a source, adding that the director has been closely involved in scouting locations and detailing the period.

While casting details remain under wraps, industry buzz suggests the ensemble includes a mix of Indian and European actors.

Our source shares, “The casting has been locked after months of research and auditions, but Mira is deliberately keeping it quiet until filming is well underway.”

The film’s European schedule — expected to cover Hungary and France — will focus on Sher-Gil’s formative artistic years. An official announcement regarding the cast is expected later this year, once principal photography progresses.

Amrita Sher-Gil is often referred to as the ‘Indian Frida Kahlo’. Born in Budapest to a Punjabi Sikh father and a Hungarian mother, she spent her early years in Hungary and India before moving to Paris at 16 to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. She revolutionised Indian art by choosing to paint the everyday reality of the Indian poor and the internal lives of women with deep empathy.