Is Hrithik Roshan in or out of Vikram Vedha remake? For a couple of weeks now, the fans of the Bollywood ”Greek God” are in a dilemma whether or not they will be witnessing Hrithik actually doing the crime thriller.
The buzz started when last week one of well-placed sources in the industry reported that Hrithik Roshan had to opt out of the remake of 2017 Tamil Blockbuster due to the scheduling conflict with his first ever OTT venture, Hotstar’s series The Night Manager. The source further added, “Though he walked out of that project citing date issues, it still remains unclear what made him change his mind and return to that project.”
This news has certainly disappointed all his fans, who were eager to see the ”War” hero in the role of a gangster along with Saif Ali Khan, with whom Hrithik would have been collaborating for the first time. But earlier yesterday, a source close to Hrithik cleared the air by stating that Hrithik has already started prepping for his character of a dreaded gangster for Vikram Vedha remake. Via an interview with Peepingmoon.com, the source said that Vikram Vedha is very much on with Hrithik as a gangster and Saif Ali Khan in the role of a righteous police officer. He further added, “Sets were being erected in Mumbai when the lockdown was announced. The film has only been delayed due to the current COVID-19 situation and will get back on track as soon as things normalize. Hrithik is very excited to play a negative role and is looking forward to work with Saif Ali Khan for the first time”.
Those who are unfamiliar with Vikram Vedha, it’s a Tamil crime drama which is Inspired by the Indian folktale Baital Pachisi and revolves around Vikram portrayed by R. Madhavan, a police inspector who sets out to track down and kill Vedha, played by Vijay Sethupathi, a gangster. Upon release in 2017, the film was a critical and commercial success winning numerous accolades including 4 Filmfare awards.
Now after the success of the original film, in March 2018, Pushkar–Gayathri, the director duo announced that they would direct the film’s Hindi remake with Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan. But soon after when Aamir left the project reportedly due to scripting satisfactory issues, the makers immediately signed Hrithik Roshan to replace him with the shooting planned to begin in mid-2021 but unfortunately it is likely to be delayed due to the lockdown in the country.
Hrithik is currently busy with the production of Indian adaptation of BBC series The Night Manager which featured Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie in the lead and Fighter, directed by Siddharth Anand. Apart from Hrithik and Saif, we are yet to receive any other casting information for Vikram Vedha but we have learnt that Reliance Entertainment and Neeraj Pandey’s Plan C Studios are producing the film in association with the original producer Y Not Studios.
Now, as there is no official announcement yet, we just cannot speculate anything but can only hope to see Hrithik Roshan going toe-to-toe with Saif Ali Khan for the first time in this extremely hyped-up remake.
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