Tina & Ismail Merchant in India, March 2004
Ismail Merchant's unproduced film The Goddess was intended to star Tina Turner as the Hindu goddess Shakti. He decided to ask the iconic star about it in 2003, a few years after she had retired. „I contacted her manager Roger Davis and he in turn sent the idea to her. Roger said that she would like to see you, go and meet her in Zurich.“ He narrated the idea and script to Tina and she was immediately excited to make the film as she thought she would do justice to the character. She was eager to learn Indian dance and music with table maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain, for the film. „Two nights before I arrived, Tina told me that she had a dream that a stranger would come to her and a new life would start for her,“ told Ismail.
As per Tina, who was a practising Buddhist at that time, her belief in faith was one of the many reasons why she agreed to do the role of Goddess Shakti:
„The cosmic energy of Shakti attracted me to this film and the film to me. It signifies a new energy, new abilities and new beginnings. I fed the desire in me which wanted me to feel the energy of thousands of people in a stadium. Now I want to go to another message,“ explains a clearly excited Tina. „The epitome of my career was when I could fill a stadium of 190,000 people, but now I am ready to move into another kind of performance. I want to re-invent myself. Everyone expects Tina Turner to come back with a new album, but I will give them this movie.“
After the deal was sealed, Ismail Merchant took Tina Turner on a tour of India, to introduce her to the culture and traditions of the country. The film was to be shot in India in a single schedule in 2004 and Tina was required to sing tracks in Hindi, English and Latin for it. It was said to be a supernatural film about a goddess, who can control the past, present and future, and her relationship with a painter (played by Matthew Modine). „The Goddess tells a story about three lovers that takes place in ancient India. The story shifts between the past, present and future,“ said Ismail.
Tina visited temples of South India and river Ganga on her tour to prepare for the film. Unfortunately, the movie never took off and was shelved indefinitely after Ismail Merchant passed away on May 25, 2005, when the film was in the pre-production stage. It was mentioned, that Tina already recorded some tracks for the soundtrack. If this is true, hopefully they will see the light of day and be released at some point.
Hindu groups, particularly in the UK, protested, citing concerns about Tina's sex icon image and it’s perceived incompatibility with the role of a goddess. Merchant argued in a long statement that her on-stage charisma and powerful presence aligned with the goddess's energy, and he defended the project as one done with reverence.