Mani Ratnam is very secretive by nature and all his projects are kept under wraps till the release. And for his latest film Guru he made the lead actors and the crew sign confidentiality bonds!

Well, now the cat is out of the bag! Guru seems to be based on the life and times of India’s biggest textile tycoon-The late Dhirubhai Ambani. According to industry sources the film takes a hard look at the phenomenal rise and the making of the Ambani empire right from his early days in Aden (in the film it is shown as Turkey).

Abhishek Bachchan plays Dhirubhai Ambani and Aishwarya Rai plays his wife Kokilaben the simple lady. The basic plot of the film hinges on the famous Ambani philosophy-accomplishing what others think is impossible. In the film, Mithun Chakravarthgy plays a sophisticated negative character pitted against Abhishek (shades of Bombay Dyeing chairman Nusli Wadia?)

Mani sir is also giving Gurua romantic touch with some great melodies tuned by A.R.Rahman and has already shot the first schedule in Turkey with the lead actors and Mallika Sherawat who plays an important role.

Remember that Mani has a weakness for basing his films on real life characters like Velu Nayakan of Nayakan that delved into the life of Bombay underworld dreaded Tamil don of the 70’s and 80’s Varadaraja Muthaliar.

Similarly 10 years back Mani shot Iruvar under top secrecy as it was the story of MGR-Jayalalithaa-Karunanidhi. He did it at a time when Jayalalithaa was the Chief Minster of Tamilnadu! Who can forget his portrayal of the Mumbai riots and the depiction of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray played by Tinnu Anand in Bombay?

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