Actress to play one of the leads in the sequel to the filmmaker’s 2007 musical-drama
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 18, 2018)

Parineeti Chopra, who is currently shooting for Prashant Singh’s Jabariya Jodi in Lucknow with her Hasee Toh Phasee co-star Sidharth Malhotra and is also gearing up to feature opposite Akshay Kumar in Kesari, has signed yet another film. Mirror has learnt that the 29-year-old actress has given her nod to the sequel of Anurag Basu’s 2007 musical drama, Life In A... Metro. She will reportedly be paired opposite National Awardwinning actor Rajkummar Rao in the film.

“Parineeti always wanted to work with Anurag as she loves his films and his vision to make something extraordinarily different. She liked the script and instantly gave her nod,” a source close to the development informed, adding that Anurag has followed Pari’s previous performances and is looking forward to collaborate with her on the much-awaited sequel.

This is the first collaboration for Parineeti and Rajkummar, and Anurag has already started work on the pre-production. According to the source, the filmmaker is keen to take the film on the floors as soon as possible.

The 2007 original had featured an ensemble cast of Shilpa Shetty, Shiney Ahuja, Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kangana Ranaut, Kay Kay Menon and Sharman Joshi. It revolved around six stories, of nine people, each with different issues and problems, all occurring with one setting as the common backdrop, the metro.

Part 2 is also slated to feature an ensemble cast and while many names including Abhishek Bachchan, Ileana D’Cruz, Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, have been doing the rounds, there hasn’t been any official confirmation yet. In August, Anurag had posted online, “Casting of an ensemble film can only be locked after securing combination dates of all the actors. It’s a very difficult task; everyone’s calendars are full for the year… Final cast will be announced soon.”

Meanwhile, Rajkummar will next be seen in Shelly Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga alongside Sonam and Anil Kapoor and has started shooting for Made In China with Mouni Roy.