/> We can't call it an autobiographical character. But what do we say when the Big B plays a superstar named Ashmit Bhargava in a film entitled The Actor?

That's what the Big B will play in Pritish Nandy Productions' The Actor, to be directed by the producer's quietly- gifted son Kushan Nandy.

The film starts shooting at the end of the year.

Confirming the news just before his hospitalization the Big B, "Yes, I'm doing a film for Pritish Nandy.The details you'll have to get from him."

The last time they worked together, Pritish Nandy was the 'presenter' of Kaante in which the Big B was the presenter. Thereafter an artificial rift was created between them by "interested parties" who, apparently, didn't want the Big B to work with PNC...until the production house made him their latest and apparently irresistible offer.

Says Pritish Nandy. "I wouldn't like to go into the past, or comment on our relationship. Amitabh and I go back a long long way. I've known him from long before the troublemakers were born. It was just a matter of the right vehicle for this amazing actor.

When my son came up with The Actor I knew this was it. I immediately approached Amitabh. We met several times. And he agreed. We start shooting by the end of the year."

The rest of the cast is now being finalized.

"But getting the principal part right was imperative, " says Pritish Nandy. " I don't think anyone else could've played Ashmit Bhargava the way Kushan wrote the character. The protagonist has to be a super-icon who's about 55-60 years old playing what's according to the script the greatest actor ever playing the biggest role of his life."

So are the identical initials of the 'The Actor' and the actor playing the role more than a mere coincidence?

"I think so, " laughs Pritish Nandy. "I think the initials for 'Amitabh Bachchan' and 'Ashmit Bhargava' say it all."

Apparenly The Actor incorporates many incidents from Mr Bachchan's life, making it his most autobiographical film to date.

Adds Kushan Nandy, "Yes, I wrote The Actor for Mr Bachchan, along with two writer-friends Kiran Shyam Shroff and Ghalib Asad."