Simmba poster: Ranveer Singh roars as funky cop in his first Dharma venture

Actor Akshay Kumar's Rowdy Rathore has competition. Ranveer Singh is now set to take on the quirky cop avatar in his next film, Simmba. The film, directed by Rohit Shetty, will mark Singh's first venture under Karan Johar's esteemed Dharma Productions banner. The film will be co-prodcued by Shetty's RS Picturez.

The first look poster of Simmba is a splash of colour as one would expect for an actor as eccentric and experimental as Ranveer Singh. Dressed in uniform, the actor combines Salman Khan's Dabanng sunglasses with Akshay's Rowdy Rathore moustache, with a touch of his own bling to make a very catchy poster. The character's name, Sangram Bhalerao, only adds to the magic of the first-look.

Simmba is a remake of the 2015 Telugu action film, Temper. The film's story revolves around a corrupt cop who turns over a new leaf and takes on a dreaded gangster. However, in September this year, director Shetty had clarified that while they had acquired the rights to the Telugu film, the Hindi film will see only a few scenes recreated from the original.

In a report on BollywoodHungama.com, Shetty was quoted as saying, "We have bought the rights of Temper, but our film is not exactly a remake. We wanted to take four-five scenes from Temper but we thought it’s better to buy the rights. It’s what we did with Singham. Our film was different from the original Singham except a few scenes. Here also, we have written our own film taking the exact idea."

Actress Tamannaah Bhatia is reportedly in the running to play the lead opposite Singh. Simmba is scheduled to be released in December 2018.

While Shetty is riding high on the success of his recent, Golmaal Returns, Singh is currently awaiting the release of the controversial Sanjay Leela Bhansali period epic, Padmavati. The actor is also set to begin filming for Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy and the biopic on India's 1983 cricket world cup triumph, '83, in the coming year.