Upala KBR (MID-DAY; October 2, 2017)

Eight months after Kaabil and a cameo in designer-turned-filmmaker Vikram Phadnis's Marathi film, Hrudayantar, Hrithik Roshan is back in the thick of things. The actor has given his nod to two films — Super 30, the Vikas Bahl-directed biopic on math whiz Anand Kumar, and Siddharth Anand's untitled next that sees him share screen space with Tiger Shroff for the first time. With these two projects on his plate, mid-day has learnt that Roshan has opted out of Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's sports film citing date issues. The actor was in talks with Mehra for a film based on kabaddi, which was to be produced by Ronnie Screwvala. Says a source, "Rakeysh had bounced the concept off Hrithik and he was excited about it. He hadn't signed on the dotted line as he wanted some changes in the script. The film is set in a prisoner-of-war camp and would see the actor portraying a kabaddi player."

The source adds that the project was to roll by March next year. However, considering Roshan would be tied up with two projects till mid-2018, he felt it would be unfair to expect Mehra and Screwvala to wait for him. "Hrithik informed Ronnie that since he was busy with Siddharth and Vikas's films, they should go ahead without him and sign on another star instead. He is professional enough not to make any filmmaker wait for him."

However, Mehra's spokesperson offers a different narrative. He insists that the director is yet to give Roshan a complete narration, only after which the actor will arrive at a decision. "Rakeysh is busy shooting Mere Pyare Prime Minister [his film on sanitation] and simultaneously, completing the script of the kabaddi film with his team of writers. Once the script is complete, he will give Hrithik a proper narration. The film wasn't supposed to roll before May. So, a clash of dates is out of question."