Farhan Akhtar to portray Ravi Shankar in Sam Mendes’ ‘The Beatles’

Farhan Akhtar has been cast as sitar legend Ravi Shankar in Sam Mendes’ ambitious four-film Beatles saga, set for an April 2028 release. The Sony Pictures project features each film told from a different band member's perspective, highlighting Shankar's deep musical influence on George Harrison

New Delhi: Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar is all set to play the role of sitar icon Ravi Shankar in filmmaker Sam Mendes’ upcoming four-part movie saga on The Beatles, slated to release in theatres in April 2028.

Sony Pictures shared the news of Akhtar’s casting with a post on its official X handle on Friday.

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“New casting announced for ‘The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event’, directed by Sam Mendes. Farhan Akhtar will star as Ravi Shankar, Lucy Boynton will star as Jane Asher. Morfydd Clark will star as Cynthia (Powell) Lennon. Harry Lawtey will star as Stuart Sutcliffe. In cinemas April 2028. #TheBeatlesMovies,” the studio posted.

Mendes, the director of critical hits like “American Beauty”, “Road to Perdition”, “Revolutionary Road”, James Bond movies “Skyfall” and “Spectre”, and “1917”, has taken on the ambitious duty of directing the four-film series chronicling the legendary British band, with each movie told from the perspective of one of the Beatles members.

The band was formed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1960 and is known for tracks such as “Hey Jude”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, and “Yesterday”, and “Penny Lane”, among others. The band broke up in 1970.

In the film, Paul Mescal will feature as Paul McCartney, Harrison Dickinson as John Lennon, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.

Ravi Shankar’s music had influenced the Beatles, particularly Harrison, who learned Sitar from the Indian maestro. The band introduced Indian instruments in several of their songs including “Norwegian Wood”, “Within You Without You ” and “Love To You”.

Shankar and Harrison remained friends till the very end and even collaborated together in a concert in the newly-independent Bangladesh on August 1, 1971.

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and the families of the late John Lennon and George Harrison have given the filmmaker the full life story and music rights for the upcoming films.

Boynton will play Jane Asher, McCartney’s ex-girlfriend, Clark will star as Cynthia Powell, who was married to Lennon for four years.

Lawtey will star as Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s bass guitarist, often referred to as the “fifth Beatle”. He later left the group to study art at Hamburg College of Art, but died suddenly at the age of 21 after complaining of a severe headache during class; the cause was later determined to be a brain haemorrhage.

Akhtar was most recently seen in the war drama “120 Bahadur”. In the west, the actor played a small part in Marvel Studios’ series “Ms. Marvel”.