(Image source from: cruxnow.com)

An official biopic on Nobel laureate Mother Teresa, the founder of Missionaries of Charity, has been announced on Monday.

Written and directed by Seema Upadhyay, the film will have cast and crew of Indian and international artists.

The makers said they met with Sister Prema Mary Pierick, current superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, and Sister Lynne in Kolkata a short time ago to take their blessings for the project.

"We visited the charity of missionaries in Kolkata and the experience was surreal. Mother Prema prayed Hail Mary and sought divine guidance for the film. They also blessed the whole team for their protection, completion, and success of the film with the firm belief that it will bring peace and light to everyone associated with this film," Upadhyay said in a statement.

The film will be produced by Pradeep Sharma, Nitin Manmohan, Girish Johar, and Prachi Manmohan.

"We are extremely delighted and happy to produce the official biopic on Mother Teresa - the great saint, who is known to the entire world for her nobility and charity.

"She is a global icon and we will ensure to leave no stone unturned to meet her international stature and pay our tribute to the noble soul. We hope we will do justice and will be able to spread the message for peace, love, and humanity that Mother Teresa stood for," the producers said.

The film will go on floor by the end of this year and will release in 2020.

Mother Teresa was born on August 26, 1910, at Skopje in Macedonia. On 13 March 1997, she resigned as head of the Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997.

She was the recipient of numerous honors including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and the Bharat Ratna in 1980. In 2003, she was beatified as 'Blessed Teresa of Calcutta'.

There have been many movies on Mother Teresa in the past - in 2003, there was a documentary, "Mother Teresa of Calcutta" by Fabrizio Costa of Italy. In 1987, Richard Attenborough turned narrator for a documentary on Mother Teresa and in 1997, the "Mother Teresa: In The Name of God's Poor" docu-drama was released.

In recent times, "The Letters" released in 2014 explored her life through letters she wrote to her long-time friend and spiritual adviser Father Celeste van Exem over a 50-year period.

-Sangam Sowmya