Bengali director Shoojit Sircar has his heart, vision and cinema set on a film on the Jalianwalabagh massacre of 1919 and wants SRK in it.

After the critical acclaim for Yahaan — and never mind the rain dance in Mumbai —it's director Shoojit Sircar, who confesses of being absolutely enamoured by Kashmir and its people. He is all set to make a film on the Jalianwalabagh massacre of 1919.

"It's the film that I wanted to make first. I went from producer to producer in Mumbai with the idea. Although I had a reputation as an ad filmmaker for making 150 commercials. I didn't realise that a feature film entailed different financial, creative and power proportions.

It was my friend writer Anurag Kashyap who suggested I make something smaller first, because no one would entrust me with a multi-crore historical flick at the start of my career. That's how Yahaan was born."

But now Shoojit is all set to make his dream come true. And he wants Shah Rukh Khan for his Jalianwalabagh. "Earlier, I neither had the clout nor the courage to approach Shah Rukh. But the critical acclaim for Yahaan has made me realise the importance of star-power for a film's impact. I definitely want Shah Rukh for Jalianwalabagh."

Will the project depend on the fate of Aamir Khan's historical turn as Mangal Pandey in Ketan Mehta's film? "Not at all!" says Sircar. "Why should it? The 1857 mutiny and the Jalianwala massacre were two different chapters from colonial India. I'm sure what I'll say about Jalianwalabagh will be quite different from the content in The Rising."

If Sircar proceeds according to plan, it would be quite interesting to see another round in the battle between the Khans, which started many years ago when Aamir made his unhappiness about SRK's favourite heroine Kajol apparent to any producer who wished to sign them together.

Today, things are radically different. In Kunal Kohli's next, Aamir is working with the very same spitfire Kajol whom he couldn't get along with. And that too in a Yashraj production which is home ground for SRK.

Simultaneously, Kajol said no to Karan Johar's film with SRK, with valid reason of course (she couldn't shoot non-stop in London with a baby to take care of). But does rivalry see reason? If after AK's Mangal Pandey, SRK does Jalianwalabagh, there'll be more reason to fuel the flames of competitiveness.