The new-age coolie will be doing a take-off on the Disco Dancer in his upcoming laugh riot
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 7, 2020)

On March 17, Varun Dhawan announced that he had completed the dubbing for his upcoming comedy, Coolie No 1, which marks his third collaboration with filmmaker-dad David Dhawan, and his first with Sara Ali Khan. The comic caper, produced by Jackky and Vashu Bhagnani with Dhawan Sr, is the official adaptation of Govinda and Karisma Kapoor’s 1995 hit film by the same name. It was gearing up for a May 1 opening when Coronavirus brought all of India to a halt. Now, there’s uncertainty around the film’s release despite the fact that the theatrical trailer and final edit have been locked. “The call will be taken only after the situation gets back to normal. But it is definitely not arriving on May 1 now. Maybe June, July or even later, depending on when the scare subsides. The producers of all the big films will come together to chalk out a release calendar for the second half of 2020,” informed a source close to the development.

Meanwhile, Mirror has learnt that the team has rebooted the original screenplay with plenty of new twists. So, while Govinda’s ‘tapori’ slang was the novelty element in the original, the crowd-pulling gimmick this time is that Varun is a die-hard Mithun Chakraborty fan. He will be seen mimicking the senior actor’s speech and his mannerisms and pelvic movements.

“Varun is a great mimic himself and his favourites are Mithun da, Akshay (Kumar) and Salman (Khan). He has done take-offs on them on public platforms. Of course, doing it on the big screen required multiple workshops and reading sessions,” said the source.

The makers have recreated two songs - ”Bhel Puri” and “Husn Hai Suhana” - from the original film. However, David has emphasised that though an adaptation, this Coolie No 1 is really a new film. “I’ve worked on it for almost a year,” he had stated.