MUMBAI, Oct 6: Hollywood star couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have arrived in India for the shooting of a movie based on the murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

The couple are expected to spend a month in western India for the shooting of ‘A Mighty Heart’, based on the eponymous book by Pearl’s widow about his abduction and killing in Pakistan in 2002.

Jolie plays Pearl’s widow Mariane while Dan Futterman plays the journalist.

Pitt and Jolie flew into the western city of Pune on Thursday afternoon with their three children, sparking a frenzy as local media tried to track down the star couple.

“Jolie, Pitt and a few members of their families arrived at Pune International Airport at about 3pm by a chartered plane belonging to Raymonds (clothing) company,” PTI said, citing unidentified airport sources.

“They then drove in two cars to Le Meridien Hotel,” the news agency said. But the hotel was unable to confirm the report.

“We cannot confirm if they are here,” Jaswinder Narang, general manager of Le Meridien in Pune, told the Hindustan Times.

Under the banner headline ‘Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive in India’, the newspaper said the couple was wearing sweat pants and retired to their rooms.

“It’s official,” private television network NDTV told viewers as it broadcast hazy ‘exclusive’ footage of a couple whose silhouettes resembled Pitt and Jolie walking through Pune airport.

Pitt was wearing a white shirt and dark khakis while Pitt was wearing dark clothes and sunglasses, and they were accompanied by their three children, the Indian Express newspaper said.

A Times of India report speculated about where the Hollywood royalty would stay.

“Sources from the production unit confirmed that a palace in Gujarat is also being considered,” the newspaper said, adding that the couple ‘might have a party in Pune’.

Part of the film is to be shot in Anundh, about 200 kilometres southeast of Mumbai, which has a landscape that matches areas in Karachi.

Indian actors Irfan Khan and Aly Khan are also set to star in the movie. The decision to shoot the film in India came after Irfan Khan was denied a visa to Pakistan.—AFP