November 18, 2009 12:50

David Lynch to make film about Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Director travelling to India in December

Photo Gallery: The Beatles

David Lynch is to make a film about The Beatles' meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The filmmaker, who recently collaborated with Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse on their 'Dark Night Of The Soul' project, says he is travelling to India this December to start filming.

The Maharishi first became known in the western world in the late '60s, after musicians including The Beatles attended his meditation classes in Rishikesh, India. The band later referenced the visit in several songs, including 'Sexy Sadie' and an early version of John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy' (then called 'Child Of Nature').

"It won't be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out," he told Nymag.com. "It'll hold a lot of abstractions. We're on our way to India in December to start the India part of it."

Lynch added that the project is likely to be a documentary rather than a film, although he didn't confirm whether any of the surviving Beatles would appear in it.

"It'll have to go in the documentary department, I think. I don't think it'll be a 'talking heads' kind of thing, but we're going to do a lot of interviews with people. We'll interview — I hope — in India, a 97-year-old man who was with Maharishi from the beginning and get stories of times that weren't so well recorded."

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died in February 2008.