/> After making a memorable film Udaan based on his own childhood and growing-up experiences, director Vikramaditya Motwane is now on to pure fiction...in fact the purest form of fiction possible. Motwane's new much talked-about film Lootera is a screen adaptation of the legendary American short-story writer O'Henry delicately-delineated story The Last Leaf.

It's the tragic story of a c dying girl who believes that the day the last leaf from the tree outside her room falls off, she would die.

Motwane, apparently had his heart set on this poetic piece of prose from the time he decided to make movies.

Says a source very close to Lootera, "Motwane wrote Lootera even before Udaan. He's completely fascinated by the story of a dying girl in the snow-capped winter and her belief that the leaves on the tree outside her window holds the key to her life. The story was obviously too wispy for a feature-film adaptation. Motwane wrote a whole new first-half that didn't exist in O'Henry's story. But the second-half of Lootera which is being shot in snow-bound Kashmir, is entire O'Henry's The Last Leaf. The original story is set in the early 20th century. Lootera has been set in the 1970s. While Ranveer Singh's character is Motwane's creation, Sonakshi is the girl from O'Henry's story."

In fact both Sonakshi Sinha and Ranveer Singh were given the story to read. They wept when they read it.

While Motwane refrained from comment, Lootera producer Vikas Bahl confirmed, "Yes, Lootera is based on O'Henry's story. It's a beautiful touching story. And Vikramaditya has fleshed it out beautifully."

Vikas further informs that O'Henry would be formally, duly and prominently credited in the credit titles of Lootera.

"We are proud to have such an evocative story for our film.And we'll most certainly credit O'Henry for his work of art," says Bahl.

Lootera won't be the first Hindi film to be adapted from an O'Henry story. Rituparno Ghosh's first Hindi film Raincoat featuring Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgn was adapted from O'Henry's The Gift Of Magi.