Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; January 5, 2015)

After her maiden production — Navdeep Singh’s NH10 — releases in March, Anushka Sharma is apparently planning to produce Navdeep’s next film titled Canada in collaboration with filmmaker Aanand L Rai.

Interestingly, the upcoming political thriller was to be originally produced by Abhay Deol in 2011. In fact, the actor had planned to venture into production with Canada when his plans to produce a film called Basra dealing with human trafficking never took off.

Abhay was part of Navdeep’s critically-acclaimed Manorama Six Feet Under (2007). At that time, Navdeep was counted among the most promising directors. Says a well-placed source, “Abhay and Navdeep bonded well and became buddies. They planned several projects, but things did not work out.” In 2011, Navdeep and Abhay had teamed up for Shaadi of The Dead (which was later retitled Rock The Shaadi) with Genelia D’Souza as his costar. The film, however, faced a roadblock when co-producer Ekta Kapoor pulled out. Abhay then planned to produce Basra with Navdeep as the helm. Things did not work out again and he decided to back Canada.

Adds the source, “When he felt nothing was moving in case of Canada, Abhay turned producer with Devika Bhagat’s One By Two last year. Navdeep had been trying to find someone to invest in Canada and in September last year, Rai came on board as producer. Now Anushka has also joined in.” The actress was not available for comment.