MUMBAI MIRROR (January 4, 2017)

A day after Salman Khan and Karan Johar announced their first co-production with Akshay Kumar in the lead; Mirror has learnt that the film is based on the Battle of Saragarhi with the Khiladi Kumar playing Havildar Ishar Singh. While insiders report that the film which will be made on a massive budget and is being planned meticulously by both the production houses, it is interesting to note that this will be the third Saragarhi film after Rajkumar Santoshi’s Randeep Hooda-starrer and Ajay Devgn’s Sons of Sardar: The Battle of Saragarhi.

While Ajay had reiterated that he would complete his second directorial, Shivaay, before taking on Sons of Sardaar, Santoshi’s film hit a roadblock following creative differences between the director and the producers. “The initial plan was to start shooting from October and wrap it up by January, 2017. However, the film’s budget ballooned and the makers subsequently asked for a bigger share in the profits, which Rajji, who is also a co-producer, wouldn’t agree to,” a source had informed Mirror earlier.

Meanwhile, Dharma and Sallu have enlisted Jatt & Juliet fame Punjabi filmmaker Anurag Singh to direct the Akki-starrer to bring out the regional flavour of the film.