September 4, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Veteran director Shyam Benegal has finally signed the beauty queen turned actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan for his next movie, which will be a female oriented project. The director is likely to start shooting of the film by next year.

Mrs. Bachchan has already her hands full with several other projects and many of them are releasing this year.

Earlier, Benegal had reportedly offered her a movie titled 'Chamki Chameli', which is believed to be a Bollywood adaptation of a classic French opera 'Carmen' by Georges Bizet. But things did not work and the project got shelved.

So, finally Aishwarya has signed a film with Benegal and he is going to complete the shooting at one stretch.

Confirming the news, Aishwarya was quoted saying that she has been working very hard this year and even did not have a chance look at the new scripts. However, the exception has happened in case of Benegal's film, which is very special to her as they have been planning to work together for so many years.

Commenting on Benegal offering her 'Chamki Chameli' earlier, the former beauty queen said that the project came to her so many times but she could not manage the dates at the time when the director wanted to film it. He wanted to capture the winter mood in Rajasthan.

Informing about the new film, the actress said that she met with Shyam Benegal in Hyderabad last year when she was shooting there and the director was working on 'Well Done Abba'. She is looking forward to sit with Benegal again to work out the details about the film.

However, the actress did not wish to disclose much about the project with Benegal. She just said that the movie is set in different period of time and it is not at all a period film but a contemporary one.

--Sampurn Wire