Vidya Balan in Sudhir Mishra’s Mehrunnisa (older post updated)

LINK

After going back and forth, deciding who his Mehrinissa will be, buzz is that Sudhir Mishra has finally zeroed upon Vidya Balan to play the titular character. Katrina Kaif is now formally out of the race. And Vidya will be joining the team towards the end of the year.

“That’s when Vidya will be free of her next assignment namely Rajkumar Gupta’s Ghanchakkar,” says a source. Interestingly Mehrunissa passed on from UTV to a rival company DAR Motion Pictures.

And Vidya apparently has readily agreed to be part of Mehrunissa. But the priority dates have gone to UTV’s Ghanchakkar.

“Sudhir has no option but to shoot with her during year-end when she is free. Since he and producer Nikhil Advani are very keen to have Vidya on board to play Mehrunissa, they are willing to wait it out,” says the source.

Vidya will be playing Mehrunissa in two different time zones, at the age of 20 and again at the age of 62. And we hear that Vidya’s older role has been modelled on Waheeda Rehman.

Says a source close to the project, “It’s interesting that Vidya would be asked to model the older avatar of her character on Waheedaji and share screen space with Bachchan saab and Chintuji. Because Bachchan saab has frequently compared Vidya to Waheedaji.”

Vidya will apparently be using some clever makeup and prosthetics to look convincing opposite Big B and Rishi Kapoor. Producer Nikhil Advani refrained from commenting on the actress’ presence in Mehrunissa.

LINK

Circa 1983, Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor shared screen space in Manmohan Desai’s blockbuster Coolie. 28 years later, the stars will reunite for Sudhir Mishra’s directorial venture Mehrunnisa. And that’s not all. The project produced by Nikhil Advani will also have the actors’ sons Abhishek and Ranbir making cameo appearances, making it one of Sudhir’s most ambitious project till date.

While Amitabh and Abhishek have worked together in films like Bunty Aur Babli, Sarkar and Sarkar Raj, Rishi and his son Ranbir have never shared screen space. “It is a script that Sudhir Mishra started writing in 1996. However, it failed to take off that time. Nikhil Advani was Sudhir’s assistant back then. After all these years, Nikhil approached Sudhir and asked him to rework the script. Saurabh Shukla is writing the dialogues for the film,” revealed a source.

Talking about the storyline, the source said, “The film starts off with two old men played by Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor reminiscing about their past. Here is where Abhishek and Ranbir come in. They play their respective fathers’ younger selves.”

“Nikhil wanted to take this film on the floors this year. But both Ranbir and Abhishek are busy with other projects now. The film will go on floors only next year now,” added the source.

When contacted, Nikhil Advani refused to comment on the project. Sudhir Mishra remained unavailable as well. “Neither Nikhil nor Sudhir want to talk about the project right now.

It’s a huge project and they want to announce it in a big way later. Both Amitabh and Rishi have loved the script and agreed to do it. In fact, the film should also star Sudhir’s favourite Chitrangda Singh,” informed the source.

Though Amitabh and Rishi were a part of Rakeysh Omprakaash Mehra’s Delhi 6, the actors did not share any screen space. They have earlier worked in super hit films like Amar Akbar Anthony and Kabhi Kabhi.

Big B and Rishi Kapoor were a part of Delhi 6 too, where the earlier did a guest appearance but did not share any screen space with Rishi. They have earlier been parts of superhit films such as Amar Akbar Anthony and Kabhi Kabhie.