Rajkumar Santoshi has signed up hot and charming babe Bipasha Basu for his upcoming movie ‘Ashoka.’ John’s beloved Bipasha will play the role of Kaurwaki, which was earlier played by Kareena Kapoor in Santosh Sivan produced ‘Asoka’.

Rajkumar Santoshi said, “We will begin shooting Ashoka at the end of February. It’s an historical film. Bipasha is paired with Ajay who plays the title role.”

This will be the Ajay and Bipasha’s fourth film together after films like Apaharan, Shikhar and Omkara.

About having picked out Ajay to act as Ashoka, Santoshi told, “He is a dark skin person. He has sharp, expressive eyes and can play any character very comfortably. He appears to be very natural in all characters he has played so far.”

Rajkumar calls ‘Ashoka’ a historic movie, and also enlightens that it would not be a modern day explanation of the epic. But when Sivan’s ‘Asoka’ bombed on Box office, what inspired him to make a film on the same subject again?

“That shows my confidence in the subject. In spite of one Asoka having come and gone, I am still coming up with another one. I may have something different to be confident about. Despite knowing the Asoka was made earlier I thought of making it again. Sivan's story ends at Kalinga, but my story starts at Kalinga,” said Santoshi.