Urmila Matondkar takes one more step on the road less travelled with a movie by celebrated Assamese filmmaker Jahnu Baruah on a man who believes his life is entwined with Mahatma Gandhi.

Baruah's first Hindi film, "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara", will feature Urmila as Anupam Kher's daughter.

The film is about a man who lives his life believing his life is linked with Gandhi. It is being produced by Kher and goes on the floors on May 27.

"I was in Kher's debut as a director in 'Om Jai Jagdish'. So when he offered me this film on Baruah's behalf there was no way I could say no. It's an interesting subject with a great deal of emotional velocity in the plot," Urmila told IANS.

She is currently shooting for Pankaj Parasher's "Varanasi" with Dimple Kapadia, Naseeruddin Shah and an arresting ensemble cast in the Hindu holy city.

"Now that I've finished the thriller 'Naina' for IDreams, and am in the middle of Varanasi, I needed to go into my next project. Baruah's film seems a good opportunity, specially since I get to interact with Anupam."

Urmila has had practically no release for a year-and-a-half.

"That's right. My last release was 'Ek Hasina Thi'. It's about time I was seen in some more films. My next release 'Naina' is a supernatural thriller. I haven't done anything like it before.

"Again 'Varanasi' is totally new territory, and so is Baruah's film. For me, the challenge of doing a new film is to go into unexplored territory," she says.

Right now Urmila is enjoying her bonding with Dimple in Varanasi.

"We got to know each other well during another film, 'Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain'. Now when we are in an alien city, we spend almost all our time together. We accompany each other practically everywhere. It's so rare for two actresses to bond so beautifully. I've been lucky. I hit it off well with Shabana Azmi during 'Tehzeeb'. Now I've found another friend in Dimple."

After Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Black", Baruah's film looks like another opportunity to explore an unusual bonding between two people divided by several generations.

Explains producer Kher: "The last film I produced was Rituparno Ghosh's 'Bariwali' in Bengali. After that there were neither the funds nor any project that excited me enough. But when Jahnu Baruah came with his script, I was enthused. It's a very powerful script. Some friends agreed to pool in money and we all decided to produce the film."