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EXCLUSIVE: Karan Johar and Vicky Kaushal in talks for another project after Mr Lele
Vicky Kaushal is starring alongside Kiara Advani in Shashank Khaitan’s directorial Mr. Lele.
While Karan Johar and Shashank Khaitan’s comic thriller, Mr. Lele is almost complete barring a few days of patchwork, the filmmaker has already approached the lead actor Vicky Kaushal for another movie. The actor’s date diary is at present empty for the dates he had committed to Aditya Dhar and Ronnie Screwvala’s Ashwatthama, co-starring Sara Ali Khan and the filmmaker is keen to fill in those dates.
Says a trade source, “Karan is very impressed with the professional manner that Vicky conducts his shoots and decided to offer him another movie under his production house. Despite the pandemic, the shoot of Mr. Lele, which began this year, is almost complete. Vicky is a no nakhra star, always on time, a director’s actor, and a delight to work with. While he has many top projects under his belt including Shoojit Sircar’s Sardar Udham Singh, Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur, Vijay Krishna Acharya’s next with Manushi Chillar and Mr.Lele, most of them are complete, except Meghna’s movie.”
Unfortunately, his most ambitious project till now, the sci-fi movie, Ashwatthama, is on hold and will take another six to nine months to work on a new budget. “It was then that Karan Johar decided that he could approach for one of his movies. Vicky has been offered both – a rom-com and an action-drama and it is up to him which he may choose to do. KJo’s production house has lots of exciting scripts on hand and it was one of those that was offered to the actor. The filmmaker and the actor share a warm bond which has only strengthened after Mr. Lele and they keep meeting now on a regular basis. Vicky’s dates are being sorted out as they had gone for a toss like many actors. Within weeks of Mr. Lele going on floors in April, the shoot had to be called off after Vicky and Bhumi tested positive. The second lockdown imposed in Maharashtra only delayed matters further but now that the film is almost complete, Vicky’s date diary is empty for the dates allotted to Ashwatthama.”
Vicky was to start shooting for Ronnie Screwvala’s Ashwatthama from September this year after the schedule of Mr. Lele was complete. The first schedule was to begin in Ukraine, and then go on to multiple international locations. Sara and he had even started prepping for the film but as the producer said in a statement that “in the last draft of the script, the ambition of the movie and the budget did not match and the overall uncertainty fuelled by COVID, did not help. So all of us – Aditya (Dhar), Vicky (Kaushal), and I – decided that we need to put this back for another six to nine months.”
Mr. Lele, directed by Shashank, also stars Kiara Advani and Bhumi Pednekar and Vicky has a couple of days of patchwork left for Vicky in October. He plays a conman in the movie who juggles between his two love interests – Kiara and Bhumi. Once complete, Shashank will move on to his next directorial, starring Shanaya Kapoor, Gurfateh Pirzada, and Lakshya Lalwani, and Vicky will continue shooting for his next.
It will be interesting to note now whether Vicky begins shooting for Karan’s next or Meghna and Ronnie’s Sam Bahadur where he plays Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw as they have dates from Vicky for that too. The film is currently under pre-production with the shoot beginning by the year end. The name of the film was announced by Vicky on the birth anniversary of the Chief of Army Staff of the Indian Army who led India to victory in the India-Pakistan war of 1971.
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