MUMBAI: Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan will play a genie in his first children’s film along the lines of the Arabian Nights fantasies, a newspaper said on Wednesday. The film, tentatively named ‘Alladin and the Mystery of the Lamp’, will go into production next year, the Mumbai Mirror said.

“Right now, I am scouting for international talent to do the special effects,” director Sujoy Ghosh was quoted as saying by the daily.

“Mr. Bachchan is very clear about the fact that if he’s doing a children’s film its production values have to be on par with international standards.”

Bollywood, which churns out formulaic popcorn romances and revenge sagas by the hundreds every year, produces few films for children, but a new boom in animation cinema is bringing about a change.

Bachchan, 63, has acted in almost 150 films, in which he has played a wide array of characters, including the angry rebel, the upright police officer and a crime boss.—Reuters