Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; June 17, 2017)

The rights to Amish Tripathi’s bestseller, The Immortals Of Meluha, seem to have changed hands. It was rumoured that Karan Johar’s long-in-the-making project Shhuddhi was based on the book. However, with his production house unable to put together a film in time, KJo had to surrender the rights. Reliable sources inform us that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has now shown interest in turning the book into a film.

The novel that is set in the mystical land of Meluha traces the journey of Shiva. The Meluhans believe Shiva is Neelkanth, their saviour as the myth suggests. While the Melhuans battle it out with Chandravanshis and Nagas, Shiva begins his quest to find his real self.

When we reached out to Amish, he and his team refused to comment on the development.

In an earlier conversation, however, Amish had confirmed to mid-day that Karan no longer has the rights to the novel. A source informs, “His contract with Karan expired recently, so Dharma had to surrender the rights to the book.”

Despite repeated attempts, Bhansali, too, chose not to comment