TEHRAN – Turkish actor Ibrahim Çelikkol and Iranian actor Hesam Manzur have joined the cast for “Drunk on Love”, Iranian director Hassan Fat’hi’s controversial project on the Persian poet and mystic Rumi, a public relations team of the movie has announced.

Çelikkol is most famous for his roles in the TV series “Black and White Love” and “Intersection”, and Manzur is mostly renowned for his roles in the popular Iranian serials “Dear Brother” and “The Lady of the Edifice”.

It was announced earlier that Iranian actors Parsa Piruzfar and Shahab Hosseini would star as Rumi and his mentor, Shams-i Tabrizi, in the movie, which will be shot entirely in the Turkish town of Konya, the home to the mausoleum of Rumi who is the composer of the classical Persian literature masterpiece Masnavi-ye Manavi.

The screenplay is being written by Fat’hi himself and his fellow Iranian writer Farhad Tohidi in consultation with Mohammad-Ali Movahhed, a top Iranian expert on Rumi.

However, Shia clerics Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Ayatollah Hossein Nuri Hamedani viewed the movie as a promotion for Sufism and banned it.

Photo: This combination photo shows Iranian actor Hesam Manzur (L) and Turkish actor Ibrahim Çelikkol.

MMS/YAW