After he shelved In-sha-allah with Salman Khan and Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Leela Bhansali is now gearing up for his upcoming long-planned biopic Gangubai Kothewali on the legendary brothel madam who changed the face of Mumbai’s red-light area Kamathipura. Said to be the cinematic adaptation of a chapter from Hussain Zaidi's novel, Mafia Queens of Mumbai, this big-budget biographical drama will see Alia playing the most powerful character of her career. In fact, PeepingMoon.com recently learned that Alia has signed the film and will start prepping for her role right after she wraps up her father Mahesh Bhatt's Sadak 2. She will reportedly kick start the project in November 2019.
Now according to a report in a leading daily, Kartik Aaryan, who was spotted leaving Bhansali’s suburban office last week, is being considered to play the male lead in the film. Well, if it all goes well, we might see Alia and Kartik share the screen space for the first time. Although there were also reports that Ranbir Kapoor is expected to play a small but important role in the biopic, PeepingMoon.com sources say it is utter nonsense that Ranbir has been approached for the film and SLB is waiting for his okay.
For the unversed, Gangubai was earlier supposed to star Priyanka Chopra in the titular role but after she got busy with her Hollywood commitments, Bhansali was left with no option but to cast Alia. When asked if Bhansali has approached her for Gangubai, Priyanka recently told a daily, “I haven’t signed a Hindi film yet… I’m a fan of Sanjay Bhansali in whatever he makes, I’ll always be his fan.”
Meanwhile, we cannot wait for an official announcement from the Bhansali camp soon!
(Source: Mumbai Mirror/PeepingMoon)