Gaurav Dubey (MID-DAY; January 21, 2016)

About four months ago, there was strong buzz about Salman Khan being approached for A R Murugadoss’ next, after the filmmaker tweeted a picture of them engrossed in a discussion, apparently for the Hindi remake of his Tamil superhit flick Kaththi. The rumours have been put to rest with Akshay Kumar confirming his presence in that film titled Ikka. However, our sources maintain that a project with Salman is definitely on the cards.

“Murugadoss is working on another script for Salman. The star is extremely eager to work with him. The film is likely to go on floors in the second half of 2016 and will be produced by Atul Agnihotri, Salman’s brother-in-law,” says a source.

Salman remained unavailable for comment. The star has worked in the Hindi remake of nearly a dozen South Indian films. The director, whose next Bollywood outing is Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Akira, has already remade two of his films in Hindi — Ghajini with Aamir Khan and Holiday (Thuppakki) with Akshay. Meanwhile, Akshay has said he will, in all probability, begin shooting for Ikka after wrapping up Rustom, Robot 2 and Namastey England. However, Murugadoss won’t be helming it; the film will be directed by his associate, Jagan Shakti.