BY ASHRAF PADANNA/AM ABDUSSALAM

KOCHI: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan is all set to debut in Malayalam with Kandahar, a film based on the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines plane to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal, the Big B's co-star in Ram Gopal Varma's Aag, a remake of his 1975 hit Sholay, is playing the lead role in the film planned for release by August during the Onam festival.

Major Ravi, the commando-turned filmmaker known for his war and terror films like Keerthichankra, Kurukshetra and Mission 90 Days, is the director of the film while Mohanlal, who recently joined the Territorial Army as a colonel, plays the role of Col Mahadevan.

Mohanlal and Ravi met the megastar, who was on a short visit to the Kerala port city on Sunday to attend a couple of programmes and discussed the project.

The Big B had expressed his desire to act in Malayalam during an interview to a television channel in Dubai in December.

"The director narrated the story to him and he said he liked the storyline and wanted to read the script in full," said Mohanlal.

"It's not a big role but a strong one filled with a lot of emotions.

"He plays the father of a passenger on the hijacked plane."

Ravi said he was just trying to imagine how the two greats would come in one single frame.

"It is great feeling when I think of that," said Ravi, a former commando of the National Security Guards (NSG).

The flight IC-814 of India's flag carrier was hijacked by five Pakistani militants while on its way from Kathmandu to New Delhi and was forced to land in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai before being taken to Kandahar where 186 passengers were kept hostages on board for a week and released in exchange of four extremists in Indian custody.

This is the fourth film of Ravi after Keerthichakara and Kuruskshetra, both featuring Mohanlal, and Mammootty's Mission 90 Days, which told the real story of Ravi who tracked down the killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi as an NSG commando.

Bachchan was invited into the project by Mohanlal at a function where he handed over the News Maker of the Year 2009 award of Manorama News television channel to Oscar winning sound technician Resul Pookutty.

He immediately accepted the offer and the three huddled together for initial discussions after the function. The film will be shot in Delhi and Nepal besides Kerala.

Bachchan appeared in the traditional south Indian attire Mundu (dhoti) and said he felt more comfortable in the single piece of cloth that has no buttons or any clips to hold it around the hip.

He also launched Jeevarogya, a health project of the Resul Pookutty Foundation and a city-based private hospital, which will treat the poor and needy and donated Rs1.1 million to the foundation.

"There are very few amongst us who would have decided like Resul. Not living in the glory of his great recognition, he had decided to convert what good he can do towards his own community and the people," Bachchan said.

"Resul is a patriot and my colleague. I'm very honoured that Resul had decided to convert his great recognition towards social service."

Under the Jeevarogya programme, the two agencies will provide free medical treatment for 3,000 persons, heart surgery for 30 and free surgeries for another 300.