In March 2020, Sunny Deol announced an action thriller film with South Indian director Hanu Raghavapudi. The film was supposed to mark Deol’s comeback to acting post his two-year break for his directorial debut, Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, which launched his son Karan Deol to showbiz. However, soon the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill, and the film was indefinitely postponed. Ever since, there hasn’t been any new development on the project, and one was assuming it had been shelved like Deol’s many announced films in the past. Now, Peepingmoon.com has learned that the film is very much on track and will likely go into production towards the end of this year.

"Sunny Deol’s film with Hanu Raghavapudi took a long time in development, but the delay was out of everyone’s control as the pandemic left no one unaffected. But now the makers have started working on it again and plan to take it to the floors by year-end or early next year. Raghavapudi has finished the writing and will soon fly to Mumbai to discuss the shooting timelines," a source close to the development told us. The director is currently awaiting the release of his multilingual period romantic drama, Sita Raman, starring Dulquer Salmaan, Rashmika Mandanna, and Mrunal Thakur in the lead, set for release in cinemas on August 5.

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We have also learnt that Nawazuddin Siddiqui has joined the cast of this suspense thriller, produced by Deol’s regular collaborator Anuj Sharma of Shantketan Entertainment. Siddiqui will play the antagonist to Deol, who essays the role of a blind army officer helping four youngsters fight off some evil. Tentatively titled The Blind Case, the film is said to be along the lines of Priyadarshan’s 2016 Mohanlal crime-thriller Oppum, which revolved around a blind man trying to protect a girl from a psycho killer. Siddiqui has verbally agreed and will sign on the dotted line once the shooting timelines are fixed.

Sunny Deol, who is currently getting treated for his back injury in the United States, has as many as five films in the lineup. He will next be seen in R Balki’s highly anticipated psychological thriller, Chup: Revenge of the Artist, co-starring Dulquer Salmaan, Pooja Bhatt, and Shreya Dhanwanthary, followed by Soorya, which is a remake of the 2018 Malayalam crime thriller, Joseph. Both films have been completed and will be released in theatres this year. Sunny has simultaneously also been dividing his timelines between Anil Sharma’s over-the-top patriotic drama Gadar 2 and Ahmed Khan’s action-packed commercial entertainer, Baap, that brings the 80s action stars Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Mithun Chakraborty, and Deol together on screen for the very first time. Deol also has Apne 2 on the slate, which he is eyeing to start in the first quarter of 2023.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui, meanwhile, has his hands packed with over half a dozen films. From Kushan Nandy’s Jogira Sara Ra Ra, Shamas Nawab Siddiqui’s Bole Chudiyan, to Sai Kabir’s Tiku Weds Sheru, Navaniat Singh’s Noorani Chehra, Jaideep Chopra’s Sangeen, and Sabir Khan’s Adbhut, Siddiqui has a robust lineup for the coming year. He is currently shooting with Bhumi Pednekar for Sudhir Mishra’s thriller, Afwaah, in Rajasthan, and soon after finishing it, will turn his attention to Sejal Shah’s untitled biopic of a customs officer who fearlessly worked to fix the flaws in the system.