Tamil filmmaker Atlee Kumar is making significant strides in Bollywood. The Bigil director, who makes his Bollywood debut with Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan this year, is now producing a Hindi action entertainer and has signed on Varun Dhawan to headline it. Atlee will produce this film in collaboration with Murad Khetani, who has previously bankrolled hits like Kabir Singh and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 under his banner Cine1 Studios. The project is slated to go on floors in August and will release in theatres in summer 2024.
Now, Peepingmoon.com has acquired some further details about this film. Industry sources have informed us that the Varun Dhawan film is the remake of Atlee’s 2016 Tamil hit, Theri, which starred Thalapathy Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and Amy Jackson in the lead. Varun has been finalized to essay the role portrayed by Vijay, while discussions are underway with Janhvi Kapoor and other actresses for the female leads. "Theri is an action-packed dramatic entertainer that revolves around a former police officer who embarks on a mission to protect his daughter from his past enemies. Atlee and his team have revamped the original script, incorporating several alterations to make it fresh and engaging for today's North-Indian audience. Rather than a straight remake, it's a reworked version of Theri with additional characters and plot twists. The makers are maintaining the essence of Theri but will present it in a distinct way," a source told us.
Tamil filmmaker Kalees, who has previously helmed the Jiiva-starrer 2019 techno-thriller Kee, has been brought on board to direct this film. Kalees has been working on this project since last year and is excited to step into the Hindi film industry with this father-daughter story. He has begun the basic preparation and will start pre-production next month. Although the exact shooting timelines have not been decided yet, the team is targeting to begin production in August 2023. Varun will start shooting for it after finishing Raj and DK’s Amazon Prime series, Citadel, in which he stars alongside Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
The Atlee Kumar film marks Varun Dhawan’s second foray into the action genre, following his 2016 buddy cop action film, Dishoom. It will also be the first time he will be seen donning a khaki uniform in his 11-year career. The Judwa 2 actor is next gearing up for the release of Nitesh Tiwari’s romantic comedy, Bawaal, scheduled later this year. He also has Bhediya 2 on the slate, expected to go into production early 2024.
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