Amitabh Bachchan will play the genie in a Bollywood fantasy based on the Disney classic Aladdin, filmmaker Rohan Sippy said in a newspaper interview published on Monday.

Rohan said the movie was to be set in 2007 and filming was scheduled to begin this summer.

"It is a modern take on Aladdin. The film will have a lot of computer graphics and special effects," he told a leading newspaper.

"It has the potential to be a great family entertainer," Rohan added.

The movie, to be directed by promising filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, also stars actors Sanjay Dutt and Riteish Deshmukh.