Mumbai: Sir Ben Kingsley, British actor will act as Mughal ruler Shah Jahan who built up the Taj Mahal in memory of his loving wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

Bollywood splendor Aishwarya Rai will play the emperor’s wife Mumtaz Mahal, upon whose death the distressed king made the Taj in 1648.

“The movie is on the building of the Taj Mahal,” Kingsley said, adding up the romance will also take in Shah Jahan’s abject loneliness for years in a jail house.

In his last years, the ruler was jailed by his son Aurangzeb, and is said to have passed his remaining days staring at the Taj from his jail cell in a close by fort.

Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Indian freedom hero Mahatma Gandhi, said, “I had spoken to Aishwarya last year while we were working on The Last Legion and she very generously agreed to do the movie with me.”