Hiren Kotwani and Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 14, 2019)

For over a year, we’ve been hearing about John Abraham stepping into Aamir Khan’s shoes for the sequel of Sarfarosh, under the aegis of director John Matthew Matthan. However, there’s been no word on the project, even as reports of the actor’s next lot of movies has been making news. When quizzed on the subject recently, the actor admitted, “I won’t comment more on it but it is not happening at this point of time.” The director reiterated this, “Yes, the film is not happening at this point of time.” But was quick to add, “I am working on the script and I plan to make it sometime.”

Diljit Dosanjh and Yami Gautam’s untitled comedy, directed by Haroon Mirza (son of veteran filmmaker Aziz Mirza), has apparently also been put on hold. Shooting was to start next month but according to a source, the Punjabi star is apprehensive about doing another laugh riot after his last outing, Arjun Patiala, failed to laugh its way to the bank. After his Bollywood debut, the multi-starrer Udta Punjab, even his sports drama, Soorma, didn’t get the numbers the makers had expected, even though it earned the actor praise for his portrayal of hockey player Sandeep Singh, while Welcome To New York received less than a warm welcome.

We tried contacting producer Ramesh Taurani, but he remained unavailable for comment. However, the source informed that the shoot has been cancelled.

Sushant Singh Rajput was so excited about telling the story of an Indian astronaut’s space mission that he went to NASA for a training session. However, the film, Chandamama Door Ke, seemed as unviable for investors as the mission to Mars seemed to the Indian government at one time. While Mars Orbiter Mission did become a reality, Sushant’s film, to be directed by Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan (the director of Lahore), didn’t take off.

The actor is still keen to go into space but until that dream materailizes, he is making do with looking beyond the earth’s stratosphere through a high-end telescope that he bought for the film.

When quizzed on the Chanda... odyssey a source informed Mirror, “We don’t know if the film will happen someday but right now, it is definitely on hold.” Meanwhile, Chandrayaan 2 was successfully launched last month.

Riding the remake wave, the Hindi adaptation of the Kannada hit, Kirik Party, was announced last year. The campus romcom had a fresh jodi, Kartik Aaryan and Jacqueline Fernandez. But buzz is, the Luka Chuppi actor wasn’t too excited by the way the Hindi version was scripted. After some back and forth, Kartik opted out of the project in March this year. There’s been no news of another actor signing up for it since. Even Jacqueline is said to have given up on this party that wrapped up even before it started.

Then, there’s a film that has come to a halt after a long-drawn out battle. Rajkumar Santoshi’s epic the Battle Of Saragarhi with Randeep Hooda spearheading it as Havildar Ishar Singh has run out of steam after two years. Some blame it on the National Award winning filmmaker’s obsession for shooting from every possible angle and asking for several retakes, which resulted in the budget escalating.

Meanwhile, a television serial, 21 Sarfarosh — Saragarhi 1897, and Akshay Kumar’s Kesari, on the same subject — the historic 1897 battle in which 21 Sikh soldiers fought 10,000 Afghan invaders — made it to the screen making Santoshi’s producers wary.

Producer Rahul Mittra says, “We pulled off an ambitious launch event with three of the then Cabinet ministers giving the clap, but eventually, creative differences came in the way and someone else made a film on the same story.”