Murad Khetani and Ranbir Kapoor are waiting for a narration now; the producer hopes to resume shooting of his horror-comedy in Mumbai
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 27, 2020)

On June 21 last year, Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani’s intense love story, Kabir Singh, the Hindi remake of Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey’s Telugu hit Arjun Reddy, took the box-office by storm, surpassing all expectations. Now, producer Murad Khetani confesses that even he did not anticipate this sort of phenomenal response from the audience that made his film the biggest hit of 2019 and one of the biggest grossers ever. “I had a feeling that it would work, but not this big!” he exclaims, pointing out that they got those numbers without any holiday or hike in ticket rates.

It’s a given that a successful team likes to reunite on another film. Murad is already working with Kiara on a horror comedy, a sequel to one released in 2007. Is he discussing a collaboration with Shahid, too? “He did a wonderful job in Kabir Singh, which was a fun ride. I would love to work with Shahid again, as soon as we find the right story,” he asserts.

Meanwhile, the filmmaker is reuniting with the director of his last romantic drama, Sandeep Reddy Vanga. Soon after Kabir Singh’s release, Sandeep had narrated an idea to both Murad and Ranbir Kapoor, which they had liked and asked him to develop. “The script is locked. Before the lockdown brought everything to a standstill, Sandeep was writing and looking to narrate it to the actors in May or June. He is in Hyderabad right now and once things get back to normal, the narrations will happen and we will proceed with the casting,” Murad shares. Buzz is, the film is titled Devil. He clarifies, “There is no title yet. All I can say is that it is an intense gangster drama. I am waiting to hear the final narration.”

The producer’s horror-comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 featuring Kartik Aaryan, Kiara and Tabu was halted days before the lockdown was announced in March in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. “There will be some monetary losses for all films. Our Lucknow schedule was called off midway. We will have to return to Lucknow to match continuity,” he points out, adding that the team is looking to resume with a brief schedule in Mumbai, before moving to Lucknow. “Around 30 per cent of the film is complete.”

Murad is also teaming up with Sidharth Malhotra on the official remake of 2019 Tamil hit, the Arun Vijay-starrer Thadam. The yet-untitled film, directed by Vardhan Ketkar, features Sid in a double role, that of a businessman and a small-time goon. It was to kick off in May in Delhi with a marathon schedule. “We will start our prep from July, monitor the situation and plan our shoot accordingly. We have permission to shoot in Mumbai, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. But filming in Delhi looks difficult right now, let’s hope for the best,” he sighs, adding that apart from the aforementioned films, they have also been exploring some interesting content during the lockdown. “There are a couple of scripts in the works.”