That Bollywood is suffering from a dearth of original ideas, is known. But director Anurag Basu, known for doing films on dark passion and adultery like Life In A Metro, Gangster and Murder, is determined to come out of this depressing abyss. Even as he is busy wrapping up the rom-com Barfee with Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra (he’s deaf, she’s autistic in this July release), Anurag is reportedly working on the storyboard for his next film. And it is not going to be a biopic on the lovable Kishore Kumar, as was widely reported, but a film on math genius Anand Kumar – best known for his ‘Super 30’ program which tutors economically-backward students free of cost.

Quietly and for some time now, Anurag has been doing research on the 38-year-old math wiz from Bihar and was inspired by the man’s genius which shows in his theories on math-related subjects published in the most prestigious journals of the world. Anurag was also amazed to discover that Anand Kumar is a simple Bihari with an impoverished background. The Bollywood director visited Patna to meet and spend time with him during which he got a grasp of Anand Kumar’s reach in the field of mathematics. Anurag has now collected enough information on Anand Kumar and is keen to make a film on him.

There is more to the story. Even while he was collecting data on Anand Kumar, the director slowly introduced the idea of doing a biopic on the math genius to his Barfee star Ranbir Kapoor. And Bollywood sources say that Ranbir, who loves a challenge, is as eager to get into the heart and mind of Anand Kumar as is Anurag himself. The director was cagey about revealing plans for this project but did admit that he had been visiting Patna frequently to meet someone on whom he plans to make a film. Incidentally, much of Amitabh Bachchan’s character in Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan last year was modelled on Anand Kumar. Jha had also roped in the math expert to coach the Big B for the role.