Madhuri Dixit is being sought by an acclaimed filmmaker who wants her to play the muse and lover of the legendary painter Raja Ravi Varma in a film based on the artist's life.

Raja Ravi Varma lived from 1848 to 1906 and in the second half of the nineteenth century, when India was still under the British rule, he was perhaps the first Indian painter to bring together the Indian style of painting with that of British portrait painters.

A scion of royal stock in Kerala, Varma left his royal family, his wife and his children, and settled in Bombay where he met Sugunabai, a Marathi woman who posed for his paintings. Eventually, they fell in love.

Varma painted many paintings of Indian goddesses for which his muse, Sugunabai, posed.

The artist drew a lot of dissension from the conventional Hindu social order of that time; even fighting a legal case to justify his stand. Varma won the case, but in the process lost his muse, as a result he never painted Indian goddesses again.

It is a remarkable account worth adapting to the silver screen. This is the six-time National Award winning filmmaker Shaji Karun’s thought as well. For more than a year now the filmmaker has been thinking of making a film on the painter's life.

Karun has gone so far as to talk to Madhuri Dixit and her secretary about the part of Sugunabai in the film, tentatively titled Suryamukhi.

According to Shaji Karun, Madhuri is the perfect choice for the role due to her Maratha lineage and her resemblance to Sugunabai.

In addition to this is the fact that Madhuri has also been an inspiration for renowned present-day painter M F Hussain.

Shaji is also said to be in talks with two stars of Hindi Cinema for the role of Raja Ravi Varma.

If Madhuri agrees to assay a role in the film, it would be her first film in five years; her last film was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas.

Shaji Karun plans to go on floors by the end of the year.

The film, which will be produced by Bobby Bedi, will be shot in Pune, Goa and Varanasi.