Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 15, 2017)

After his last film, the top grosser Dangal, there has been plenty of speculation about Nitesh Tiwari's next venture. Now, Mirror has learnt that after bringing Mahavir Phogat and his champion wrestler daughters, Geeta and Babita, on screen, the writer-director has started working on a screen adaptation of Varun Agarwal's 2012 debut novel, How I Braved Anu Aunty & Co-Founded A Million Dollar Company. The book is a true story set in Bangalore about pursuing one's dreams, or, as its author puts it, "Take the leap and then think.“

Varun, like his namesake and 20-something protagonist, wanted to set up his own company after getting an engineering degree in telecommunications, much to the dismay of his mother, who enlisted the help of her friend to dissuade him. However, despite Anu aunty's constant monitoring and mockery, Varun, after several alcohol-induced conversations with his school friend and now-partner, Rohan Malhotra, founded a merchandising company that creates customised clothing and accessories for the alumni of schools and colleges across India.

He chronicled his adventure in Facebook blogs which found him a publisher. In eight days, when he was ill and unable to leave home, he dashed off a 50,000 word novel which went on to become a bestseller. Today, the reluctant engineer is a successful entrepreneur with three start-ups. Besides the first, there's also a social media marketing company and a film production house. And Varun is now thinking of a sequel to his debut novel as also a book that chronicles his filmmaking journey that started with short films and music videos with a handy cam gifted to him by his mother. The film will be jointly produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur under their respective banners.

The duo's association with Nitesh dates back to his debut film, Chillar Party, in 2011, which they had produced. Siddharth and Nitesh went on to collaborate on Dangal, with the latter's riveting script impressing Aamir Khan which led to them rewriting box-office history. Now, with this topical film revolving around the start-up culture that youngsters today are opting for over the traditional doctor, engineer, MBA templates favoured by their parents' generation, the trio is on a novel track. The film will feature one of the top stars from the younger set.