Karan Johar's next mutli-starrer movie titled 'Kalank' - Page 2

Karan Johar's Dharma Productions, is producing the period drama, Shiddat (working title), which is being directed by Abhishek Varman and rolls from next year. While the filmmaker is yet to announce Shiddat (it's said that the title will be changed) and its star cast, the sets are already being constructed in Film City. Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur play the main protagonists in the film. Sridevi and Sanjay Dutt are all set to reunite after 25 years in the film and coincidentally, the last film where the two stars had romanced each other was Mahesh Bhatt's Gumrah, which had been produced by Karan Johar's father Yash Johar (Dharma Productions). Shiddat too (like Bhatt's Gumrah) is a Dharma production in collaboration with Fox Star Studios and Sajid Nadiadwala. Manish Malhotra is designing the look for the entire cast from that era which is of the 1940s. A huge set is currently being built in Film City and the shooting of the film will start from early next year.

Says a trade source, "Sanju, who plays a rich businessman from Lahore and Sridevi, his wife, will be seen together as Varun and Aditya's parents in the film, which is an intense, romantic period drama. They had last acted together in the action drama-cum crime thriller, Gumrah (1993), written by Robin Bhatt and Sujit Senand, and directed by Mahesh Bhatt. While the film was the seventh highest grossing Hindi film at the box office that year, they never worked together after that. Gumrah was their first film and they never worked together in the 1980s as Dutt was hooked on alcohol and drugs most of the time which hadn't created a good impression on the actress during their first encounter. So whenever Sridevi signed a film, Dutt would not be the hero till Gumrah! But after that she was fine and when he was arrested in the early 1990s, along with other stars, she went to show her support for Dutt at a rally. In Shiddat both Sridevi and Sanju have powerfully, well-etched out roles which will be remembered.

Talking about the film, the source adds, "Shiddat is a big budget period drama, and a love triangle between Varun, Alia, and Aditya is set against the backdrop of the 1947 India-Pakistan partition. Few know that the film was Karan's father Yash Johar's dream project which the filmmaker had spent three months in Lahore researching on. There is a hero and anti-hero in the male leads and buzz is that Varun plays the anti-hero with grey shades while Aditya has been finalized to play the good guy and Madhuri Dixit Nene plays Alia's mother. Even Sonakshi Sinha has a strong cameo in the film.

Karan Johar had gone on Twitter in October this year, to announce the release date of Shiddat on April 19, 2019 which was a Good Friday, leading many to think that the title was Good Friday. In another tweet, the filmmaker had said the final cast of the movie would be announced soon and all rumors of the story and other details circulating were false.