The Sairat director has already written a script with Bachchan in mind.
Amitabh Bachchan to work with Nagraj Manjule on his Hindi debut?
Mumbai - 07 Aug 2017 11:18 IST
Sonal Pandya
The busiest actor in the Hindi film industry? Why that’d be Amitabh Bachchan! The veteran actor who turns 75 this October has been on every filmmaker’s wishlist. We can now add National Award-winning director Nagraj Manjule to that list as well. However, it seems that Manjule is quite close to getting Bachchan to star in his next film.
The director gained nationwide attention when his hard-hitting love story Sairat (2016) became the highest-grossing Marathi film ever. Karan Johar even bought the rights to make a Hindi version. The Telugu and Punjabi versions are also in the works.
Manjule is working on a script for his next film which will be in Hindi. A source told Mumbai Mirror tabloid, which first reported the news, that “Nagraj worked on it for a year-and-a-half before taking the script to Bachchan in January. The project was locked soon after.”
The role will find Bachchan playing a patriarch, once again, albeit with shades of grey. Earlier this year, the actor finally saw the film and praised it on Twitter. He wrote, “What a great cinematic experience .. what a movie ..!!!”
T 2514 - Oh ...!! and saw the film 'Sairat', the Marathi wonder .. what a great cinematic experience .. what a movie ..!!! pic.twitter.com/7pPQrsttrC
— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) January 25, 2017
Manjule, too, has confessed that he is a huge Bachchan fan and he was inspired by Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay (1975) to become a director.
Bachchan has been shooting this past few months on Yash Raj Films’ Thugs of Hindostan (2018) with Aamir Khan and also has Umesh Shukla’s 102 Not Out with co-star Rishi Kapoor lined up for release.
Manjule will reportedly start shooting for the film with Bachchan later this year.