Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 28, 2018)

Fresh off his ninth appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, where his Nandita Das-directed Manto biopic was screened in the Un Certain Regard category, Nawazuddin Siddiqui dived into the shooting of another biographical drama, the Abhijit Panse directed project on the late Balasaheb Thackeray. Now, Mirror has learnt that the 44-year-old actor has greenlit another film, which will be spearheaded by casting director-turned-filmmaker Honey Trehan, who has previously assisted Vishal Bhardwaj on Maqbool, Omkara, Kaminey and 7 Khoon Maaf.

“Honey has been working on the script for a while now. It is a crime-thriller and is set in the interiors of India. Nawaz has really liked the script and has given his nod to the film but is yet to sign on the dotted line. Meanwhile, Honey has begun work on the preproduction and is on the lookout for his leading lady. They are expected to start work early next year and Nawaz will begin his prep closer to the shooting date,” informs a source close to the development.

Honey was earlier gearing up to make his directorial debut with the Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan-starrer project that takes off from the story Femme Fatale from Hussain Zaidi’s book, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, and was to be produced by Vishal. However, the duo had subsequently agreed that the latter should take over the directorial reins. “Owing to differences in creative understanding, we have mutually and amicably decided that it would be best for our film if Vishal sir took over as director,” Honey had earlier said in a statement.

Meanwhile Nawaz, who was last seen in Kushan Nandy’s 2017 crime drama Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, has recently completed the dubbing for Ritesh Batra’s Photograph.