Superstar Rajinikanth may play the role of ancient Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in the Rs 50 crore plus movie St. Thomas produced by the Catholic Archdiocese of Chennai. The film will also have actors like Ajith, Vijay and Vikram in guest roles. The film was launched by chief minister M. Karunanidhi recently in Chennai.

"Hollywood actor James Caviezel who played Jesus in Passion of the Christ may act in our film as Jesus.

Some other Hollywood actor will play St. Thomas, " says Dr Paulraj Lourdusamy, chief researcher and script-writer of the film.

"An important part of the film is St. Thomas' meeting with sage poet Thiruvalluvar. We thought Rajinikanth would fit that role perfectly. We are trying to rope him in for the project, " Paulraj adds.

Dr Paulraj, who has three doctorates earned from various foreign universities, spent one year in libraries across the world to find the existing literature on St. Thomas.

Well-versed in French, he did the script in French first and then in English. The film will be made in Tamil and Malayalam first and will then be dubbed in Hindi. The shoot will be conducted in Idukki and Munnar region in Kerala which still preserves the 2, 000- year old bio diversity intact. -Jyothi Venkatesh