Actor-producer Suniel Shetty is all set to play a real life character in "Red Alert-The War Within" about the Maoist movement in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.

Suniel plays the central character of Narasimha, a farm labourer who needs money to fund the education of his children. He finds himself in the midst of Maoists and his mission becomes a mere subset of a greater cause that the militants pursue.

"With his personality, Suniel fits into the character so well that no other actor can fit the bill. The role is dynamic and Suniel has the potential to portray it and I am quite sure he will win a national award for the same," said Gulshan Grover, who also plays an important role in the film, at the launch function here Monday.

To be directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and produced by T.P. Aggarwal and Rahul Aggarwal of Star Entertainment Pvt Ltd, the film is based on a true story.

Eminent filmmaker Aruna Raje, who is known for her realistic films like "Shaque", "Gehrayee", "Sitam", "Rihaee", "Bhairavi" and more recently "Tum", has written the script.

"Ananth came with the subject and requested me to write a script. The subject interested me so much that I agreed immediately. Since, it is based on a real life incident, we had to do a lot of research to provide a feel of reality to the script," said Raje.

Naseeruddin Shah, Vinod Khanna, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharkar, Bhagyashree, Ashish Vidyarthi and Makrand Deshpande will also be seen in the film, which will be made at a budget of Rs.100 million.

It will go to floors in a 40-day schedule from May 19 and will be released sometime in October 2008, said the director.