Srinivasa Ramanujan's life is being made into a film with "Slumdog Millionaire" star Dev Patel starring as the legendary mathematician while a Hollywood A-lister is set to play his mentor G H Hardy.
"The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan" will be adapted by Matthew Brown from Robert Kanigel's book of the same name.
Edward R Pressman, who has been behind cult hits like "American Psycho", "Das Boot" and "Wall Street", is producing the biopic with Prashita Chaudhary's Cinemorphic Entertainment Company, Jim Young and Sofia Sondervan.
"The book was introduced to me by Matthew Brown. He is very passionate about making this film. I think it is a very fascinating subject which is in some ways akin to 'A Beautiful Mind' but also brings in a historical perspective," Pressman told PTI over phone from Cannes Film Festival.
"He was an amazing individual and a person who changed the face of India. This film also talks about his love story."
Prashita, 27, who is in the festival as the co-producer of 'The Congress' that screened in the Directors' Fortnight section, said they have already decided on a Hollywood star to play Hardy.
"I read the book and wanted to buy the rights when I got to know that Mr Pressman was already involved with the project. I am interested in global projects like this so we connected. It could not have been better than this for me because it is about great Ramanujan," said Prashita, who is also behind Danis Tanovic's project starring Emraan Hashmi.
The producers are planning to begin shooting the movie in India and England by September with Patel in the lead.
"I met Dev (Patel) with Mat Brown. Sofia Sondervan, one of the producers on this movie, knew Dev and was very enthusiastic about the idea of him as Ramanujan and we agreed with her after meeting Dev three months ago," Pressman said.
