PUNE, June 27: Both share a common bond - they have spent some of their best years in Pune. Noted columnist Farrukh Dhondy and the infamous criminal brain - turned writer, Charles Sobhraj, may soon return to Pune, as a team, putting on celluloid the life and times of the master crook.

Sobhraj, who now lives in Paris after being extradited, recently called upon Dhondy in London. The casual chat turned into a discussion on a project - to produce a Hindi film, charting Sobhraj's adventurous life.

Sobhraj's step-sister, Priya Samtani, says, ``The entire project is in its preliminary stages. Both of them spent some time discussing it and one thing is clear - that Sobhraj would like to control the script and he would like to shoot the film as far as possible, in real life locations.'' Pune will list prominently for the shooting locales, says his cousin Tara Advani. She proudly states that ``Sobhraj has a special affection for Pune when he lived with us in our house".

So, although some of the landmarks in Pune where he used to patronise has changed, others are still the same and these would be in the spotlight. The Somwar Peth swimming pool for example, where Sobhraj used to swim for hours , is one of his favourite spots.

A British professional lawyer-cum-agent will be working out the formalities of the contract. Priya Samtani says that the film unit would probably approach the Film Technology Institute of India (FTII).

While Dhondy and Sobhraj are still working out their respective roles in what is likely to be a multi-million dollar project, Advani says that ``the look out for a youngster to play a junior Charles Sobhraj has already begun. Charles Sobhraj himself might play the role of the older man.''

Besides the movie, which will also be made in English, Sobhraj will feature in Farrukh Dhondy's Channel IV and perhaps the BBC for video interviews. Sobhraj is apparently scouting for authors for writing books on him.

However, says Samtani, ``Although all these projects will fetch Sobhraj huge amounts of money, he will not put it to personal use. He hopes to establish a couple of educational and charitable institutions around Pune .''

Sobhraj's tryst with Pune goes back to the mid-sixties when as a 17-year-old boy he was sent off by his father, Sobhraj Bhavnani from Vietnam to Pune.

Charles was the only child from his father's first wife, a French, while Priya was one of the eight children born from his second wife, a Sindhi lady who was sent off to Pune by her husband.. Sobhraj stayed at her maternal grandmother's place for a couple of years. Says Samtani, ``those were the only two nice years of his otherwise turbulent life.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.