South Indian sensation Rashmika Mandanna seems to be the latest attraction for Hindi filmmakers. Her popularity has soared in the film industry since the success of Pushpa: The Rise, capturing the attention of every big Bollywood producer. Rashmika has been offered dozens of films in the past few months, but she is being selective with her Bollywood career and turning down most scripts, opting only for films that truly deserve her attention. She has so far been seen in Amitabh Bachchan’s Goodbye and Sidharth Malhotra’s highly disappointing Mission Majnu, and has Ranbir Kapoor’s gangster drama Animal next up her sleeve. Rashmika has also signed Dinesh Vijan’s historical epic, Chhava, as we revealed last week. While Chhava, in which she will star alongside Vicky Kaushal, is yet to be announced, we heard Rashmika has already bagged one more Hindi film.
Peepingmoon.com has exclusively learned that Rashmika Mandanna has now signed Anees Bazmee’s next action comedy, starring Shahid Kapoor in the lead. The Geetha Govindam actress will play the leading lady opposite Kapoor in this yet-untitled mass entertainer, produced by Dil Raju and Ekta Kapoor. "Rashmika was the ideal choice from the beginning. Both Ekta Kapoor and Dil Raju have worked with her in Goodbye and Varisu, respectively, and they believe she naturally fits the quirky character of the heroine in this film. Moreover, Shahid and Rashmika make for a fresh and captivating on-screen pair, generating more excitement amongst audiences," a source close to the project told us.
The Anees Bazmee film sees Shahid Kapoor exploring the action-comedy genre, nearly a decade after his previous venture, Prabhu Deva’s R… Rajkumar (2013). The movie is a commercial comic caper with a quirky storyline and loads of action, and presents Shahid in a double role for the first time in his two-decade-long career. It boasts an ensemble supporting cast alongside Shahid and Rashmika, and casting for that is going on in full swing as we report this development. Anees is said to have almost finished the script and will begin pre-production next month. The film will apparently go on floors around August, after Shahid finishes Rosshan Andrrews’ investigative thriller for Roy Kapur Films. Pooja Hegde has apparently been paired opposite Shahid in this Hindi remake of the Malayalam thriller Mumbai Police.
On the release front, Shahid has Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bloody Daddy slated to release on Jio Cinema on June 9. The film is a remake of the 2011 French film Sleepless Night and stars Shahid as a loving father on the run to save his child from the mafia. In contrast, Rashmika is awaiting the release of Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rule and has two South Indian films in production: an untitled Tamil film with Nithiin, directed by Venky Kudumula; and Shantharuban’s female-led Telugu slice-of-life film, Rainbow.
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