Bollywood's Casablanca remake

The Forties film Casablanca is getting a Bollywood remake.

The Oscar-winning classic, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, will swap Morocco for Sri Lanka's tropical beaches in this version which begins shooting next month.

Bollywood director Rajeev Nath is creating the tribute to the 1942 original-Tamil actor Suresh Gopi and Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi will star in the roles played by Bogart and Bergman.

In the original Bogart's bar owner, Rick Blaine, helps former lover Ilsa Lund (Bergman) and her husband Victor Laszlo escape the Nazis. The Bollywood-version will instead feature Sri Lanka's civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels.

It will see an Indian diplomat-turned-restaurateur help his lover and her husband, both Tamil separatist rebels fighting the Sri Lankan government, escape from India.

In the adaptation, the hero and his lover meet in a beachside restaurant.