A couple of weeks ago, we reported that director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) had found the lead star for his upcoming 3D adaptation of Yann Martel’s Life of Pi with seventeen-year-old newcomer Surej Sharma.  The highly acclaimed novel tells the story of a boy named Pi, who gets stranded at sea for 227 days with a tiger. Now, with production set to start in January, Ang Lee is looking to cast the boy’s parents in the film.

According to TimesofIndia (via ThePlaylist), Lee hopes to cast popular Bollywood actress Tabu in the role of Pi’s mother, while Bollywood actors Sushant Singh and Sonu Sood are up for role of Pi’s father. By doing this, Lee will be following in the footsteps of Danny Boyle, who also chose to cast Bollywood actors in leading roles for Slumdog Millionaire.  Life of Pi is set to open on December 14, 2012.  You can hit the jump to read a plot synopsis for the novel.

Here’s a plot synopsis for Life of Pi via Amazon:

The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them “the truth.” After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional–but is it more true?