Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; March 28, 2017)

As Sushant Singh Rajput made an announcement about his new project, Romeo Akbar Walter — his third film slated to roll this year — there is much speculation around his space drama, Chandamama Door Ke. Producer Viki Rajani had told us last November that the film is meant to start rolling in May this year. In January, Sushant began prepping for it and even posted a series of videos on social media to announce it to the world. However, the project is proving to be too time-consuming for its own good.

Confirming that the shoot has been deferred, producer Viki Rajani says, “Chandamama Door Ke is a big venture that requires a lot of pre-production work. We had previously decided to start it by end of June or early July. We have collectively decided that July-end will be a realistic time for us to roll out the film and wrap up the schedule by November. We have a lot of international technicians coming down during the shoot, so we need the planning to be spot on.”

Reportedly, the first schedule will majorly involve Sushant. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who plays a crucial part, joins the shoot later this year after wrapping up Nandita Das’ biopic on Sadat Hasan Manto. Nawaz had earlier told mid-day, “The prep for Chandamama Door Ke is going to be grilling. We need to train in zero gravity scenes and also underwater diving scenes.”

R Madhavan also features in the film, playing a pilot.