Amidst many speculations of whether Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra will be cast together in the love story helmed by the mercurial maker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the master filmmaker’s production house has gone ahead and booked a title called Gangubai with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association (IMPPA).

Well, Gangubai is the name of the lady from the red light area in then Bombay called Kamathipura who ran multiple brothels and later offered protection to the women who were forced into the flesh trade.

It was earlier reported that Bhansali was planning a film called Heera Mandi on the same subject but the title registration has opened a Pandora’s box. When Priyanka Chopra said on Koffee With Karan that she was in talks with Bhansali for a film, it raised a few eyebrows. “Bhansali would not just register a title for the sake of it. The script has been with him for a while and he may well get PC to do that film. Sometimes the media does put two and two together to figure out if Salman and PC are in the same film — a chance they missed out recently on Bharat. So, in all probability PC will be Gangubai,” says a well-informed trade source.

Gangubai is a period film and about a brothel owner who even had a chat with the then prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru when she met him to apprise him about the problems of the women in the flesh trade.

—Sanskriti Media