Mirror was the first to report that Shah Rukh Khan is gearing up to make a comeback to the screen in 2021. He was last seen in 2018, in the Aanand L Rai-directed Zero, as the vertically challenged Bauuaa Singh with Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. Now, the actor gets back into action with Siddharth Anand’s Pathan which is scheduled to take off towards the end of November and will be shot over eight months in multiple countries.

“While the November schedule will be in Mumbai with only SRK, co-stars, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham join him early next year during an overseas stint of the film. It is a battle royale between SRK and John, with Deepika playing an important thread, taking the narrative forward,” informs a source, adding that the film is looking to wrap up by June 2021 and eying a release in the last quarter of the year.

Shah Rukh has been growing his hair and a stubble for Pathan. Interestingly, he will be back on the set of his own film after 870 days, as he’d wrapped up Zero in June 2018. During his self-imposed hibernation, he’d shot two cameos—Ayan Mukerji’s fantasy action adventure Brahmastra, featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in the lead, and R Madhavan’s real-life story, Rocketry.

His next will begin around August next year and could be either with Rajkumar Hirani or Atlee at the helm. “While Atlee’s film seems to be in the forefront right now, he has his heart set on Hirani’s social drama, as it will be a breather between two action-packed films. But Hirani takes his time to complete a script and a clear picture will only emerge by mid-2021,” informs the source.

While Hirani’s is an immigration tale that moves between Punjab and Canada, the South director’s next is an action film in which Shah Rukh plays the double role of a special force officer and a dreaded gangster. “The film is currently being scripted by Raju and Kanika Dhillon, they are working on the second half,” shares the source.

Meanwhile, Mirror has learnt that SRK will fly out Atlee’s entire team to Mumbai this December as they are on the verge of locking the script. “Atlee has been developing the script remotely with a team of Karan Johar, who is co-producing the film with SRK. He will be in the city from December for narrations, to lock the cast, scout for locations and get his technical team in place,” reveals the source, adding that the South director will be setting up a new office here, as it won’t be feasible to travel from Chennai to Mumbai every month in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.