Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 29, 2017)

Aishwarya Rai, who is presently holidaying in New York with husband Abhishek Bachchan and five-year-old daughter Aaradhya, will jump into prep for her next film, the Anil Kapoor-starrer, musical-drama, Fanney Khan, in July.

While the film doesn’t feature Ash and Anil as love interests, it marks their reunion 17 years after they were last seen together in Satish Kaushik’s Humara Dil Aapke Paas Hai. The duo also featured in Subhash Ghai’s musical love triangle Taal a year earlier.

“The team starts building the set in Mumbai next month and Anil will kick off shooting in the first week of August. Aishwarya joins him by the month-end and the film will wrap up in a start-to-finish schedule by October,” Prernaa Arora, who is co-producing the film with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, told Mirror, adding that Ash was blown away by her glamorous and “highly stylised” character. “We took the script to her two months ago and she immediately gave her nod.”

Quiz her about reports that Priyanka Chopra turned down the role because she was unhappy with the script and the filmmaker clarifies, “Since I came on-board, we’ve only approached Ash. She was our first and only choice for the film.”

Fanney Khan marks the directorial debut of Atul Manjrekar, and is the Hindi adaptation of the 2000 Dutch release, Everybody’s Famous! Directed by Dominique Deruddere, it was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 73rd Academy Awards. The original followed a 17-year-old aspiring singer whose career takes off after her unemployed father, who also harbours dreams of becoming a musician, decides to kidnap the top singer of the country. “The passion and madness of the original film will remain with only minor details changed,” says Prerna.

Anil and Ash had their first reading together earlier this month and . Prerna reveals that their combined energy is unparalleled. “Almost all of Ash’s scenes are with Anil. Her character is the complete opposite of her serious turns in Jazbaa and Sarbjit. In our film she is the spunky, enchanting female protagonist.”

She confirmed that Anil will belt out not one or two but multiple songs for the musical-drama. When asked if Ash will follow suit she says that it is likely that she will also deliver her first single with this film. “Everyone will be surprised by Ash’s turn,” she says.