MUMBAI: Debutant director Kranti Kanade has signed Harvey Keitel to play a role inspired by the Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines in his film Against Itself.

The film casts Kietel as a 90-year old American schoolmaster Edward Baker, who struggles against a tide of anti-Christian sentiment that threatens his students, his school and his life. 

Staines was burnt alive by Hindu extremist Dara Singh in Orissa on 22 Janurary 1999. Staines‘ sons, aged 10 and six, were also charred to death when their station wagon outside a tribal education camp was set aflame by Dara Singh and his mob of fundamentalists.

Keitel is known for his performances in classics such as Martin Scorcese‘s Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Quentin Tarantino‘s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion‘s The Piano and Holy Smoke, plays a 90-year old in Against Itself 20 years older than his real age.

Kanade’s last film Bal won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The screenplay of Against Itself has won the IFFLA film fund development grant instituted by the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.