SCOOPS: Ranveer Singh's '83 to be his first trilingual, 56 hostels scouted for Sushant and Shraddha's 'Chhichhore'

After the stupendous success of Simmba, Ranveer Singh has begun prep for his next, ’83. The Kabir Khan directorial stars the actor as Kapil Dev, the former cricket captain who led Team India to its first World Cup win in 1983. Even as Ranveer begins his training to essay the legend and perfect his trademark bowling style, we hear that the sports drama will be made in Tamil and Telugu besides Hindi. This will be the Padmaavat actor and Bajrangi Bhaijaan director’s first trilingual movie.

So far, Anurag Basu has locked in Rajkummar Rao, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Aditya Roy Kapur and Abhishek Bachchan for his next — an anthology of four stories threaded into one narrative, like his earlier film Life In A...Metro (2007). 

Now, we have learnt that the makers have found a heroine to cast opposite the OK Jaanu (2017) actor. Our source reveals, “Sanya Malhotra will play the female lead in Aditya’s story. The makers were scouting for a younger face and chose her. She loved the film’s concept. It’s a funny love story. They wanted an actress with a good comic timing. Anurag liked her performance in Badhaai Ho (2018) and is now keen  on starting the shoot with her.” This also reunites Sanya with her Dangal co-star and BFF Fatima. Though, the source adds, “They don’t have a scene together in the film, given its setting. Sanya will start shooting for it sometime this week.” 

—Nayandeep Rakshit

Last year saw some big films like Thugs Of Hindostan and Zero coming unstuck at the box office and in comparison, smaller-budget movies like Stree, AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho turned out to be huge hits. Sidharth Malhotra, who has two releases this year, Jabariya Jodi and Marjaavaan, says, “The takeaway from 2018 is that movies with well-written scripts, concepts and dialogues have done well regardless of who the actor is. AndhaDhun, Stree and Badhaai Ho are prime examples of stories coming forward. I think it has to do with good writing. I have always said one needs to invest more in writers. The audience, too, is concentrating on the writing, the scenes and dialogues.”

Yesterday, newspapers across the country were abuzz with the news of Bollywood ‘starlet’ Sara Ali Khan and her mother, Amrita Singh, staking their claim to a disputed property in Dehradun. Reports said that the mother-and-daughter duo had arrived in Uttarakhand (where Sara’s debut film, Kedarnath, was shot) over the weekend to stake their claim to a four-acre area in Clement Town, which belonged to Amrita’s mom, the late Rukhsana Sultana’s family. 

After the Betaab actress’ maternal uncle, Madhusudan Bimbet died, she and her maasi (mother’s sister) Tahira were jointly staking their claim to the property, which is reportedly valued at `50 crore. It is in this connection that Sara was also present with her mother.

However, certain sections of the media have probably not taken into account that Sara, who made her Bollywood debut in December 2018 with two movies — the fairly successful Kedarnath and the blockbuster, Simmba — has now risen in the ranks. They inadvertently (or for want of a better adjective) called her a starlet (read struggling actor). Here, we must add that knowing Sara as well as we do and how pragmatic the 23-year-old is, she will probably not have an issue with agencies labelling her a struggler. Her take on this will be two successful films do not make a superstar. It takes years to make the climb!

2018 has been a fantastic year for Vicky Kaushal with movies such as Raazi, Sanju, Manmarziyaan, Love Per Square Foot and Lust Stories, while 2019 has begun with him being appreciated for Uri: The Surgical Strike. The actor believes that now is the time for him to keep the focus and to not take things for granted. “You have to change gears and go full throttle,” says the actor. He has Karan Johar’s Takht to look forward to now and Vicky couldn’t be happier. “It is such an honour for me to be part of the cast and to have the trust of a director like Karan for making me such a pivotal part of the film. Getting a lead role in a KJo movie is a dream that every actor has. I just can’t wait to sink my teeth into that role because it’s going to really take a lot from me. I love parts that demand a lot from me. It’s going to be different from anything I’ve ever done in my life,” he said. 

It was on the filmmaker’s chat show last year that the actor had admitted to not being single. On prodding further, all he was willing to say is, “I can talk about my life, but I have to protect the privacy of the other person. Some things need to be guarded and I would like to keep it that way. But yes, I’m not single. It’s a beautiful feeling to be in love,” he stated. Time for him to be in a romantic film now that he’s in the right head space? “Hai na?” he laughed, adding, “I’d love to!” 

Kirti Kulhari played the lead in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar (2017)and was a pivotal part of the critically-acclaimed Pink (2016) as well. So, when she opted for a much smaller role in the recently-released Uri: The Surgical Strike, where she plays a pilot, we couldn’t help but ask the actress what made her take it on.

“Firstly, I don’t play by the rules of lead, second lead, supporting role, etc. I have made an effort not to base my decisions on such things,” she told us. The other reason she decided to take on this role was her defense background. “My father was in the Navy and my sister is in the army.  I didn’t want to lose out on the chance of playing someone from the army,” she says, adding that while her role was small, she is an important part of the surgical strike shown in the film.

Yami Gautam's recent release, Uri: The Surgical Strike has gone on to officially become the first blockbuster of the year. She plays an intelligence officer in the film based on the real-life surgical strike conducted by the Indian army in Uri, Kashmir in 2016. The war drama crossed its Rs 100-crore mark in 10 days, which according to trade experts, is the fastest in recent times for a medium budget film to cross the mark. An ecstatic Yami says, “I am very happy with the kind of response the film has earned and is continuing to have a great run at the box office. I’m grateful to the team behind the movie, everyone has truly worked very hard. It’s amazing to have producers like Ronnie (Screwvala) who believe in their content and invest in people like us. I’m personally excited to have such a tremendous beginning to 2019.”

On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai and at the gathering attended by film personalities, he made a reference to superstar Jeetendra. Talking about the hard work an actor/artiste has to go through for a film, the PM said, “People only see an actor, they don’t know what exactly goes behind becoming one. There are people in the entertainment industry, in the technical department, creative department, or for that matter, even performers who are an institution in themselves and still to maintain themselves is a task. We like it when we see Jeetendra well-maintained but obviously, he’s put in a lot of hard work to be like this. But a common man doesn’t know the hardship he has been through.”

Ekta Kapoor posted a picture of her father with the PM and wrote, “JAI HIND! My dad’s fan moment ! My dad is a big fan of the honourable prime minister n today he met him.....” (sic)

Modi replied to Ekta’s post saying, “The entire nation admires Jeetendra Ji for his acting. And, as I said yesterday, he is full of energy!” (sic) 

Nitesh Tiwari, who last shot Dangal and is currently working on his next Chhichhore starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor, did a recce of several locations before zeroing in on the final one. A source from the team reveals, “The film has two different portions — one where the cast is in college (set in 1992) and the other being the present-day setting where the gang reunites. It was challenging for us to make each real location look like the bygone era. For one of the hostel sequences, we did a recee of about 56 locations in total across Mumbai-Thane-Vashi to find that one perfect location. The thought behind such a recce was that we wanted to achieve what the director had conceived during the prep of the schedule.” 

The team has finally locked the New Zealand hostel in Aarey Colony for the shoot. The source further added, “There is a huge difference between making a set and shooting and finding the perfect real location. We chose this hostel because it still retains its old-world charm and fits the plot well. The sequence features Sushant and will be filmed soon.”