Aamir Khan to collaborate with Andaz Apna Apna director Rajkumar Santoshi for another comic caper

Rajkumar Santoshi and Aamir Khan

It is known that Aamir Khan is producing movies with filmmaker-friend Rajkumar Santoshi. The first is Lahore 1947, which sees the director reunite with his Ghayal (1990), Damini (1993) and Ghatak (1996) actor Sunny Deol. The period drama set around the Partition is being readied for a January 24, 2025 release, in keeping with the Republic Day holiday. We hear that the second collaboration is a comic caper in which Santoshi is keen to cast Aamir. The duo, who had been keen to work together again about three decades after Andaz Apna Apna (1994), have finally found a suitable subject and have tentatively titled the film Char Din Ki Zindagi. However, one can't say for sure which movie the actor-producer will take up next. More so as he has been approached for quite a few films. One of them is a collaboration with Zoya Akhtar, another with Three of Us director Avinash Arun, and a couple of pan-India projects with acclaimed filmmakers from the south. Aamir is currently overseeing the post-production of his upcoming release, Sitaare Zameen Par, with director RS Prasanna. Only after both these under-production films are complete, will he think about his next movie.

Shooting halted!

Uh oh! A little after a week De De Pyaar De 2 went on floors in Patiala, Punjab, filming has come to a halt. Reason - Anshul Sharma, director of the Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh and R Madhavan-starrer has contracted dengue. As a result, the schedule, which was initially planned till mid-October, had to be abruptly ended and the team flown back to Mumbai. Insiders claim that after recovery, Anshul will proceed with the shoot in Mumbai. The Patiala schedule will be re-planned, in keeping with the actors' dates. Taking off from De De Pyaar De (2019), the sequel features Maddy as Rakul's on-screen father, who is not convinced about her relationship with Ajay's 50-year-old businessman character.

Paternity break ke baad

Ranveer Singh is balancing his break after welcoming a baby girl with actor-wife Deepika Padukone earlier this month. Even as he is spending time with their bundle of joy, he is also preparing for the next spell of his film with director Aditya Dhar. Come November, Ranveer will resume filming the period action drama, which also stars Akshaye Khanna, Arjun Rampal, R Madhavan, Yami Gautam and Sanjay Dutt. The team had wrapped up the first schedule in Thailand before Ranveer took his paternity break. Yesterday, he shared a picture on social media from his workout session. He is currently sporting long hair and beard, adding to the buzz that he plays a Sikh character in the narrative based on a historically significant R&AW covert operation. To be shot over six months in various international locations, the movie is slated to arrive in the last quarter of 2025. Ranveer also has Farhan Akhtar's Don 3 with Kiara Advani lined up.

A few more cuts for Devara

The makers of Devara: Part 1 cut a couple of scenes from the Junior NTR, Saif Ali Khan and Janhvi Kapoor-starrer. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had cleared Koratala Siva's directorial venture on September 18 with a U/A certificate. However, on Tuesday, the makers approached the board after editing a nearly five-minute sequence and about two-and-a-half minute-long rolling titles. The final duration of the action drama is two hours and 51 minutes.

A spirited casting coup

Thanks to the stupendous success of Animal (2023), director Sandeep Reddy Vanga's next, Spirit, with Prabhas, has been eagerly anticipated by the trade and audience alike. Even as the film is slated to go on floors next year, it now appears that the filmmaker has managed a casting coup. Rumours are rife that he is roping in Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan, and that too for negative roles in the action thriller. What makes it interesting is that this is the first time in Hindi cinema that a real-life couple will be playing antagonists in a movie. The last time the two actors did a full feature together was Agent Vinod, which released a few months before their October 2012 wedding. Guess we'll have to wait a while before Sandeep announces the principal cast.

Making history

Anushka Sen became the first Indian artiste to perform live on stage at Times Square, New York. She also made her debut as a singer with AY Young, as they sang Graduation, composed by Grammy-winner Ken Lewis, from the album, Project 17, based on United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The actor said, "That there were people from all over the world watching us perform was an exhilarating experience. I am thankful to AY Young for giving me this opportunity and Ken Lewis who flew in just to support us, it makes me feel like I have a family in America."

Betting big on Indian content

Guneet Monga Kapoor, who was the latest guest on mid-day's podcast, The Bombay Film Story, revisited her journey from being an independent producer to winning the Oscar for Elephant Whisperers (2022), and going mainstream with Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah. When asked if joining hands with Karan Johar on Kill and Gyaarah Gyaarah her way of becoming a part of the producer system in Bollyood,she said, "It is amazing working with Dharma Productions and Balaji Motion Pictures [Pagglait, 2021]. There is full freedom, lots of innovation, taking it to the moon and back." Starring Dhairya Karwa, Kritika Kamra and Raghav Juyal, Gyaarah Gyaarah is an official adaptation of the Korean series, Signal. When Guneet was probed if Indian content will have its moment like Korea had 10 years ago, she promptly replied, "Yes, it is waiting to happen." Talking about how the series came in the middle of their previous collaboration, Kill, Guneet said, "[There was] fate in coming together and faith that we do the best version. For me, it is the best kind of marketing, using the system, knowledge, contacts [to take your content to the world]. In India, Dharma is phenomenal. Karan is a cinephile and a very good representation [of it.]"