Alia Bhatt politely declines Dinesh Vijan's horror-comedy owing to her date issues!

By Gurpreet Kaur

on April 17, 2020

In March, the paparazzi caught Alia Bhatt visiting filmmaker Dinesh Vijan’s office and PeepingMoon.com informed you that the actress is in advanced talks with Vijan to headline his next production. In fact, it was believed that Alia has given the script her nod and will sign on the dotted line in a few weeks. “Vijan’s film is a horror-comedy and sees her playing a breezy role. She liked what was narrated and okayed it verbally. The makers and Alia’s team are currently working on other modalities before she’s officially on board," a source told us.

However, to everyone's dismay, we have learnt that Alia has said no to the project owing to her date issues. Apparently, the Coronavirus outbreak has put Alia's schedule in a state of disarray and thus, she could not accommodate Maddock Films' next. Hence, she politely declined Dinesh's offer. Well, we are certainly disheartened to hear the news!

For the unversed, Vijan’s film is untitled and will be directed by Sriram Raghavan’s assistant Yogesh Chandekar who has also written the film and is one of the writers of Raghavan’s Andhadhun. He makes his directorial debut with this Maddock Films production. Amar Kaushik, who has directed Stree and Bala for Vijan’s banner, will be the creative producer on it. The film was expected to go on floors around July but it seems all plans have gone downhill with the ongoing crisis.

On the work front, Alia has commitments for Dharma Production’s Brahmastra and S. S. Rajamouli’s RRR apart from Karan Johar-directed Takht. She is also playing intense characters back-to-back in her father Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak 2 and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi.

(Source: PeepingMoon)

Vijan is said to be developing a horror-comedy universe and Alia’s film might be his next project for this genre. The filmmaker began exploring horror laced with comedy films with Stree in 2018 and will follow it up with the Rajkummar Rao and Janhvi Kapoor starrer Roohi Afzana this year. He’s also believed to be working on one more film set in the same genre called Munjha which tells the story of a naughty ghost looking for a bride.