MUMBAI, Oct 9: A leafy boulevard in an Indian city stood in for a swish Pakistani neighbourhood on Monday as Hollywood star Angelina Jolie began shooting for a film about a US journalist abducted and killed in Pakistan.

The film, ‘A Mighty Heart’, is the story of Daniel Pearl, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped in Karachi and killed in 2002 while researching a report in the aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001, attacks.

It will be shot for a month in the western Indian city of Pune as security concerns prevented filming in Pakistan.

On Monday, filming began in a two-storey white bungalow in Pune’s Sindh Society locality, which has a striking similarity to the district in Karachi — with its boulevards, row houses and bungalows — where Pearl was staying.

Cars painted yellow to resemble Karachi taxis were parked in front of the house and used for filming.

“Some scenes were shot today, but we are not aware of the exact portions that have been shot,” said Sunita Thakar of Kailash Picture Company, which is managing the shooting schedule of the film in India.

The Oscar-winning US actress plays the slain reporter’s wife, Mariane. Her partner Brad Pitt is the movie’s producer.

The celebrity couple’s arrival in Pune has thrown the quiet Indian city into a frenzy as hundreds of fans throng their luxury hotel and the shooting locale for a glimpse.

The tightly guarded venues have also been surrounded by dozens of journalists and cameramen.

At the weekend, the couple took rides around the city in a three-wheel taxi with their adopted son Maddox, drawing large crowds who gave their security staff a trying time.

The film is based on a book by Mariane Pearl, “A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl”.

Dan Futterman plays the murdered journalist and English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for war-based films such as “Welcome to Sarajevo” and “The Road to Guantanamo,” is the director.

“A Mighty Heart” is about “cross-cultural understanding and the values that people of all faiths share”, Jolie said in a statement.

“This is not a film about terrorism or conflict, it is a story of people of all faiths working together to find the truth.”

No release date has been set for “A Mighty Heart.” —Reuters