The Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha is currently in New Delhi on a clandestine trip to research on her next project which would be based on the months before the partition of India into two countries in 1947. While the cast and other details are yet to be finalized, we learn that Saif Ali Khan is the serious and most likely contender for the role of Jawaharlal Nehru. However the film's central character is Lord Mountbatten and the film recreates the final months of the British statesman's stay in India.

Last week, Gurinder, who is from Punjab, became the first filmmaker to get a bird's eye view of the entire Rashtrapati Bhavan. Apparently, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife invited Gurinder into their inaccessible home, so she could portray her Partition film truthfully. Says a friend of the director, "Gurinder's film needs to recreate the Rashtrapati Bhavan, since a lot of it is shot within its premise. Obviously she can't shoot inside the real Rashtrapati Bhavan. But she got a special invitation from the Prime Minister and his wife to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan. Gurinder will now recreate the interiors of the Prime Minister's residence on a set in all its details."

Apparently, the director has been friends with the Prime Minister's wife Gursharan Kaur for some time now. Says the source, "Gurinder met the Prime Minister through Mrs. Manmohan Singh. They hit it off as they hail from the same part of Punjab. Gurinder is currently on a trip rediscovering her roots. She wants her two kids, twins Ronak and Komiko, to learn Punjabi. In fact Gurinder's new film would have a lot of Punjabi dialogues and songs. She also met Punjabi singer Rabbi Gill in Delhi this week."