After the success of her film "The Namesake", acclaimed director Mira Nair is now set to achieve a coup of sorts by bringing together mega star Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood icon Johnny Depp in her next movie.

The two celebrated actors will share the screen in Nair's next assignment "Shantaram", based on Gregory David Robert's novel of the same name.

Bachchan plays an underworld don in the movie, based on the 2003 semi-autobiographical novel about a heroin addict who flees from an Australian prison and comes to Mumbai. Depp, the star of "Edward Scissorhands" and "Pirates Of The Caribbean", plays the drug addict.

"The movie deals with the theme of who is a foreigner, who is a native and who determines who is the outsider," said Nair, here to attend the India Today conclave.

The movie will show how the drug addict suddenly finds himself in a Mumbai slum and how he deals with being an outsider in a foreign land.

"After having made movies for peanuts, this is a film which will require nothing less than a peanut plantation," quipped Nair, indicating that "Shantaram" would be a big budget affair, the filming of which is expected to begin during the fall of this year.

Thrilled at being selected for directing the project, Nair, who has been making films based on Indian stories despite being largely based in Hollywood, said in a lighter vein: "Had it gone to any 'gora', I would have shot him.

"It is important to keep the continuum of the east and west going," said the director of the Oscar nominated "Salam Bombay".

"The Namesake" was a box office hit in the US, making it to the Top 20 film list there.