Akshay Kumar has been a busy man. After wrapping up a period spy thriller, Bellbottom, in Scotland in August, the actor has resumed work on a period drama, Prithviraj, at a city studio. Before the year ends, he will wrap up his portions in Aanand L Rai’s love story Atrangi Re and kick off the new year with a fourth film in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Sajid Nadiadwala’s Bachchan Pandey will roll in January and continue till March. It marks the actor’s 10th collaboration with his producer-buddy.

“Akshay, along with leading lady Kriti Sanon, director Farhad Samji and the rest of the unit will fly to Jaisalmer for a marathon schedule of over 60 days during which they will be filming in real locations. Last month, the production team secured all the requisite permissions and locked the shooting spots,” revealed a source. Akshay, Sajid, Kriti and Farhad’s previous collaboration, the 2019 period-comedy Housefull 4, was also shot in the Golden City and the source added that several of that film’s crew are on board for Bachchan Pandey as well.

The entire team will be stationed at a palace hotel together and some indoor sequences will be shot there. The film also has some elaborate action scenes and teams from across the country will be joining the crew for that shoot. Bachchan Pandey, along with Heropanti 2, will be among the first two Sajid Nadiadwala productions to flag off, and the filmmaker has formed a special team, including doctors from Mumbai, to ensure that all Covid safety protocols are enforced on the set.

“The team will undergo an extensive workshop on all SOPs to ensure a no-contact set. The entire cast and crew will undergo a mandatory Covid test towards December end and the crew will be quarantined for three days before the shoot. Special medical rooms have been set up in Jaisalmer and locations will be sanitised the night before the shoot,” informed the source.

Akshay plays a gangster and Kriti a journalist. The twist in tale occurs when the two characters meet and discover their common passion for cinema, which brings along action, drama, and humour, because while the gangster is a wannabe actor, the journalist aspires to be a director. “Akshay is looking forward to exploring the crime space that elicits laughs. His get-up will be high on prosthetics,” shared the source, saying that the film will have an interesting ensemble cast and some acclaimed actors are expected to come on board within a fortnight. “There’s also another actress in the film and the makers are considering two-three names; dates are being worked upon,” the source concluded.