Kolkata: Under threat of a law suit, actor-film maker Dev Anand on June 26 said his upcoming film 'Song of Life' was not the story of sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar or his family and that he would finalise the star cast within a month to go ahead with his "dream project" of directing an English movie.

"It is not their (Pt Ravi Shankar's) family story. And it should not be. They must realise that I am not interested in the nitty-gritties of their life," Dev Anand said over phone from Mumbai.

Clarifying media reports, which suggested that his movie was a true-life story of the Shankars, Anand said it "certainly is not".

"When you read a novel or a newspaper report and it jolts you enough to make a film, that becomes a creation. What if something from real life, someone around you seems to make for a brilliant plot…do you call it violation of privacy?" Anand asked.

Pointing out that the basic storyline was somewhere close to Shankar's life in that it had a musician father, an American wife and a daughter born out of wedlock, Anand said he, however, had immense respect for the maestro and did not want to hurt his sentiments.

"I have a lot of affection and respect for Pt Ravi Shankar and am not naming him anywhere either in the film or in the credit line," he said.

The film got mired in controversy after the Shankars, including half sisters Anoushka and Nora Jones threatened to sue the filmmaker if he tried to portray their story on celluloid.

PTI