Kathmandu, Dec 15 : Six years after he was arrested in Nepal for the murder of an American tourist during the hippie era of the 70s and slammed with life imprisonment, the country's most talked-about prisoner Charles Sobhraj and his fairytale love story with a young Nepali woman 44 years his junior is now going to inspire a film by a Nepali director.

Nepali film director Narayan Puri, who made the first film on the Maoist insurgency in Nepal at a time the armed insurrection was taboo for historians, authors and film makers alike, is now going to venture into uncharted waters with his new venture, "Badshah".

"My film is not the true story of Charles Sobhraj," the 40-year-old film director clarified to IANS a day after the muhurat of the new venture in Kathmandu.

"I don't have the rights to make such a film and am aware of the trouble Bollywood directors have run into with their ambitious plans to make a film on the life and crimes of Sobhraj. 'Badshah' is simply inspired by the love story of Sobhraj and Nihita Biswas."

Last year, Sobhraj, once one of the most wanted criminals in the world and now fighting his conviction in Nepal's Central Jail, announced he had fallen in love with a
20-year-old girl who had been sent by an acquaintance to act as an interpreter for his French lawyer.

The news sent the media worldwide into a flutter and a Nepali television station, Avenues TV, aired a long interview with the young woman who became a celebrity and object of curiosity overnight.

"I watched the programme with the girl saying confidently she knew about his past but yet was ready to marry him and I was very impressed," Puri said. "I realised that it's not only people with a positive image who have fans. It can happen to even a prisoner behind bars. I also realised what an intelligent man Sobhraj was and how his taking to crime was a loss for society."

Though the Nepali film industry is yet to follow the trend of a negative character as the protagonist, Puri is going to make the experiment with Nepal's biggest star, actor Rajesh Hamal, likely to play the role of the Sobhraj-like character.

The story begins with a distinguished foreigner arriving in Nepal amidst much acclaim to inaugurate an orphanage. While NGOs and the media work themselves up into a frenzy over the visitor with a golden wallet, one man alone - a police officer - has doubts about his integrity and begins a painstaking and difficult investigation into his background.

Puri says there are two more themes woven into the plot.

"Nepal has acquired the ill reputation of being a safe haven for wanted criminals from other countries," he says. "There have been reports about (underworld don) Dawood Ibrahim's men sheltering in Nepal and people running fake Indian currency rackets from here.

"But no one has made a film on that. I want to include that to caution our security agencies that they have to be on the alert."

The second issue is related to the reports of paedophiles from abroad running child centres in Nepal and abusing or even selling the children abroad.

"I want to alert our people to that as well," he says. "We shouldn't welcome everyone who wants to be a donor without closely scrutinising his or her background and motive."

The shooting starts from March and the locations chosen by Puri are Kathmandu's five-star hotels. Sobhraj was caught from the casino of one and according to police, stayed in two more during his visit in 1975, which he denies.

The other key location will be the Hanumandhoka police station, where he was taken after his arrest and kept for several days as well as the Central Jail where he and Nihita claim to have exchanged wedding vows and garlands in a traditional ritual.

However, the police station and jail will be entirely recreated in the studio since both are out of bounds for filmmakers.(IANS)