A biopic on the legendary Dadasaheb Phalke is in the making. However, two teams are on it – Aamir Khan and his PK director Raju Hirani on one side and Jr NTR along with SS Rajamouli on other. It is reported that Aamir and his team have done a full-fledged research on the subject for the past three years and is ready to roll post the release of Sitaare Zameen Par.

Now, Dadasaheb Phalke’s grandson, Chandrashekhar Srikrishna Pusalkar, has come out openly to support the biopic being planned by Aamir Khan and director Rajkumar Hirani. Pusalkar was quoted saying the team has worked hard for three years to earn the family’s trust. He further added that assistant producer Hindukush Bharadwaj made repeated research trips, shared drafts and recorded family anecdotes, convincing him the project was in “safe hands.”

On the other hand, he also stated that the SS Rajamouli’s camp—whose film Made in India is tipped to star Jr NTR—never contacted the Phalke family at all. “If someone is making a film on Phalke-ji, the family must be consulted,” he argued, adding that the lack of engagement led him to withhold approval for the Rajamouli version.

Well, it looks like the family is effectively giving Aamir-Hirani first-mover advantage. Their untitled biopic will roll  in October and Vidya Balan suggested for the role of Saraswatibai Phalke. Meanwhile, the Jr NTR project remains in script development and further updates are expected.

Dadasaheb Phalke, remembered as the “Father of Indian Cinema, ” wrote, directed and produced Raja Harishchandra (1913) — India’s very first full-length feature film. Over the next two decades he made about 95 films and 26 short documentaries, often drawing on Hindu mythology and folk tales, and introducing special-effects techniques that were revolutionary for the time. In 1969 the Government of India created the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the country’s highest honour in cinema, to celebrate lifetime achievement; legends from Satyajit Ray to Amitabh Bachchan have received it.