Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 7, 2019)

After the Sujoy Ghosh-directed revenge-drama Badla, which also featured Taapsee Pannu as lead, Amitabh Bachchan started shooting for his first Hindi-Tamil bilingual, Tera Yaar Hoon Main, with South actors S J Suryah and Ramya Krishnan in early April. Now, we have learnt that the Big B, along with Emraan Hashmi, will kick off shooting for Rumi Jaffery’s next directorial on May 10 in Mumbai.

“It is a mystery-thriller that revolves around a group of friends, some of whom are retired lawyers. They meet at a bungalow in Shimla and play a psychological game. It’s an intriguing story with Bachchan saab as one of the lawyers, while Emraan plays a business tycoon. This is the first time that the two actors are working together. We are constructing a huge set of the bungalow at a Malad studio,” informs producer Anand Pandit.

Rumi, who has previously penned films in David Dhawan’s No 1 series including Coolie No 1, Hero No 1 and Biwi No 1 as also Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge, had last directed the 2012 comedy-drama Gali Gali Chor Hai, which was headlined by Akshaye Khanna. Interestingly, this is Bachchan’s third outing as a lawyer after playing Deepak Sehgal in the Shoojit Sircar produced 2016 social-thriller Pink and Badla.

The film also features Annu Kapoor in a pivotal role. “Rumi has given the final touches to the script that has been penned by a group of writers. We will begin the reading sessions from Tuesday while he has already begun prep. We will wrap up the Mumbai schedule on June 12,” informs Anand.

Meanwhile, Emraan will next be seen in The Body alongside Sobhita Dhulipala, while Bachchan will feature in Ayan Mukerji’s Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer Brahmastra and Sairat director Nagraj Manjule’s Hindi debut, Jhund.