Rickshaw madness for Brad and Angelina

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie on a rickshaw ride with their son Maddox in the Indian town of Pune, were chased by media and forced to turn back after a 20-minute ride.

At every red light, security men travelling in another rickshaw jumped out and surrounded the three-wheeler to prevent the media from snapping pictures of Pitt and Jolie.

A leafy boulevard in an Indian city stood in for a swish Pakistani neighbourhood yesterday as Jolie and Pitt began shooting for a film about a US journalist abducted and killed in Pakistan.

The film, "A Mighty Heart", is the story of Daniel Pearl, a reporter with The Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped in the Pakistani port city of Karachi and killed in 2002 while researching a report in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

It will be shot for a month in the western Indian industrial city of Pune as security concerns prevented filming in Pakistan.

Filming began yesterday in a two-storey white bungalow in Pune's Sindh Society locality, which has a striking similarity to the district in Karachi - with its boulevards, row houses and bungalows - where Pearl was staying.

Oscar-winning actress Jolie plays the slain reporter's wife, Mariane. Brad Pitt is the movie's producer.

The celebrity couple's arrival in Pune has thrown the quiet Indian city into a frenzy as hundreds of fans throng their luxury hotel and the shooting locale for a glimpse.

The tightly guarded venues have also been surrounded by dozens of journalists and cameramen.

Pune, an industrial town of more than four million people, is about 130 km southeast of Mumbai, India's financial and entertainment hub.

The film is based on a book by Mariane Pearl, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl".

Dan Futterman plays the murdered journalist and English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for war-based films such as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Road to Guantanamo," is the director.

"A Mighty Heart" is about "cross-cultural understanding and the values that people of all faiths share", Jolie said in a statement.

"This is not a film about terrorism or conflict, it is a story of people of all faiths working together to find the truth."

No release date has been set for "A Mighty Heart."

- REUTERS