Karan Johar’s next film, a period love story set against Partition, will go on the floors in April
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 20, 2018)

Mirror had earlier reported (March 6) that Karan Johar had revealed on his talent reality show, India’s Next Superstars, that he was gearing up to kick off his first film with Sridevi in April. He had approached the late actress exactly a week after he proposed to launch her daughter Janhvi Kapoor in Dhadak, the Hindi remake of the Marathi superhit, Sairat. Sridevi’s untimely demise robbed KJo of the chance to work with the diva among whose memorable performances was his father, Yash Johar’s 1993 crime drama, Gumrah, which had she playing a singer wrongly convicted for drug trafficking in Hong Kong with Sanjay Dutt as a petty thief who helps her break out of jail and return home.

On Monday, Janhvi revealed on the social media that Madhuri Dixit has stepped into her mother’s shoes. Thanking Madhuri, Janhvi tweeted, “Abhishek Varman’s next film was very close to mom’s heart. Dad (Boney Kapoor), Khushi (her sister) and I are thankful to Madhuriji for now being a part of this beautiful film.”

According to a source associated with the film, it will take off as scheduled in mid April. “The first schedule will be in Mumbai for around a month after which the team moves to Madhya Pradesh. It is essentially a love story with the Partition as the backdrop,” adds the source.

The film, reportedly features Aditya Roy Kapur, Varun Dhwan and Alia Bhatt. Buzz is, Sanjay Dutt was supposed to be paired with Sridevi. Karan however tweeted later in the evening, saying they were “honoured and humbled to have Madhuri ön board but was quick to refute reports that the film is titled Shidat. He added the final cast and credits will be announced soon.