Millions of Indians who know Sir Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi are in for a huge shock. Their Gandhi will soon be Osho.

After that historic Oscar role, almost 25 years go, Sir Ben Kingsley will return next year — in and as Guru of Sex.

Made by Media One Ventures, an international film production division of Compact Disc India Limited (CDI), a company based in Chandigarh, the script for the movie is being worked on by noted UK-based writer Farrukh Dhondy.

And that’s not all. According to Suresh Kumar, chairman, CDI, his production division is also working on another headline-grabber - an animation project on soccer featuring Brazilian superstar Ronaldo, with voiceovers from Hollywood stars like Michael Douglas, Samuel Jackson, Catherine Zeta Jones and Christina Aguilera.

Another forthcoming release is Raju the Joker, an animation movie which shall be a sort of sequel to Raj Kapoor’s legendary Mera Naam Joker. “We have taken the requisite permissions from RK films,” says Kumar.

And again, The Little Mermaid, featuring Bollywood heroine Dia Mirza, with underwater sequences in animation.

Confirming that Dhondy has been roped in for the projected $ 16-million the Bhagwan Rajneesh film, Kumar says the soccer movie will be released in time for the FIFA Confederation Cup in 2009, and involves a $ 20.15 million tie-up with Hollywood’s Motion Pixel Corporation.

Incorporated in 1992 as a maker of compact discs, CDI ventured into animation in 2002 and has obviously emerged as one of the most extraordinary success stories of the estimated $550-million Indian animation industry.

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