Batti Gul Meter Chalu (Shahid, Shraddha & Yami)

By Sreeju Sudhakaran | Published: October 7, 2017 3:03 pm


After ditching JP Dutta’s Paltan, Abhishek Bachchan to play a parallel lead in Shahid Kapoor’s Roshni?

Abhishek Bachchan was recently in news after walking out of the war drama Paltan, that too just hours before the movie was to begin shooting. No reason was given for his exit and it was quite mystifying since the director JP Dutta had launched Abhishek in Bollywood with Refugee and later worked with him in movies like LOC Kargil and Umrao Jaan. Though the makers replaced him with Harshvardhan Rane, the mystery about his exit hasn’t been solved yet.

Now we hear that the actor, who was last seen in 2016’s Housefull 3, is being approached to play the parallel lead in Shahid Kapoor’s next with Toilet Ek Prem Katha director Shree Narayan Singh. Tentatively titled Roshni, the movie is about corruption in electricity board and how electricity is stolen in villages and small towns, leading to huge bills for innocent consumers. As per a report in Mid-Day, a source close the project revealed, “Abhishek was recently given a narration and was quite excited by the script. It is a story about two men — one is involved in electricity theft and the other starts a movement against the practice.”

It is not yet revealed which character Abhishek Bachchan will be playing in the movie. When the newspaper contacted the producer Prerna Arora, she said, “Abhishek is surely on our wish list, but nothing has been finalised yet. We’ve already signed Shahid, who is the main lead of the film.”

Shahid Kapoor is believed to be playing a lawyer in the movie, who fights a legal battle against the malpractices done in the name of electricity supply. Katrina Kaif is rumoured to be signed as the female lead, making it the first time these two have been paired together. However, the paper also mentions that Shahid Kapoor, is said to be averse to Abhishek being a part of the movie as he is not fond of two-hero films. Does that anything to do with Padmavati?

Katrina Kaif, who was going through a career low as some of her highly anticipated films flopped in a row, has bounced back in the reckoning after the earth-shattering success of her latest release, Tiger Zinda Hai, also starring Salman Khan. The Fitoor actress will next be seen in Batti Gul Meter Chalu, the upcoming directorial of Toilet Ek Prem Katha fame Shree Narayan Singh.



The social-drama film features Shahid Kapoor as the male lead. In the past, Katrina was approached for films like Phata Poster Nikla Hero and Shaandaar, but due to her jam-packed schedule, she could not sign those projects and missed out on the opportunity to work with Shahid Kapoor twice.



But now, Katrina is set to work with the Padmavati actor for the first time in her career. The actress will play a village belle in the movie and in order to do full justice to her character, the actress will brush up her Hindi.



“So this time, although Katrina again had a date issue, she decided to do Narayan’s film, more so because it gives her a chance to play a small-town girl. She will brush up her Hindi to sound convincing,” reveals Shahid Kapoor.



Produced by KriArj Entertainment, Batti Gul Meter Chalu is expected to mount floors early next year.