Priyanka Chopra to play Indian guru’s secretary in biopic

Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is all set to play Maa Anand Sheela, the personal assistance of the controversial Indian guru Osho, in an upcoming Amazon Studios film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film named Sheela will be directed by Barry Levinson. Chopra had first announced the project on but it has now been approved.

Priyanka had earlier said, “I am developing a feature film with Barry Levinson. He did Rain Man and he is an iconic American director. And we are developing it as the character of Sheila, who was this guru (Osho) who originated from India, his right-hand woman and she was just devious and created a whole cult in America and brought people here. He was called Osho. I am developing that next for me to star in and produce in which I think would be really cool.”

Maa Anand Sheela’s story came to limelight after Netflix’s documentary series Wild Wild Country.

As the personal secretary of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from 1981 through 1985, she managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon. She spearheaded a campaign to poisoning salad bars and restaurants which led to an outbreak of salmonella and left 750 people sick.

In 1986, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the biggest bioterror attack in US history. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison but release 39 months. Sheela later moved to Switzerland where she runs two nursing homes.

The film will be produced by Barry Levinson’s Baltimore Pictures, Priyanka Chopra’s Purple Pebble Pictures and Permut Presentations’ David Permut and Jason Sosnoff. Sheela has been written by Nick Yarborough.

Apart from Sheela, Priyanka Chopra will soon be seen in Ramin Bahrani’s The White Tiger, Robert Rodriguez’s We Can Be Heroes and the upcoming Matrix movie.

Priyanka and husband Nick Jonas are also producing a sangeet-based reality show for Amazon. The actor was last seen in 2019’s The Sky is Pink and is yet to announce her next Bollywood project.