Bunty Aur Babli director Shaad Ali on handing over the baton for the sequel
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; February 6, 2020)

When the sequel to Bunty Aur Babli was announced last month, there was much talk about Abhishek Bachchan not reprising his role. Reports also suggested that Shaad Ali, the director of the 2005 hit, had refused to helm the latest instalment featuring Rani Mukerji, Saif Ali Khan, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Sharvari as he was busy with his web series, Pawan & Pooja.

Rubbishing the rumours, the filmmaker says that he is only too happy to hand over the baton to his former assistant director and now debutant director Varun V Sharma. "My work [in the universe of Bunty Aur Babli] is done. It's somebody else's thought and story; he has written the script. So, let him do the sequel and I am sure he will make a good movie. I don't have any regrets about not doing it. I was never meant to direct the sequel," he states.

Ali is currently dividing his time between Pawan & Pooja, and the biopic on his grandmother, freedom fighter Lakshmi Sehgal. "It's my dream project. I have passed on the baton of writing to somebody else as I was too close to the project. The script is ready. I am fine-tuning the creative [aspects]."