Riteish Deshmukh making Rs225-crore film on Shivaji, says Ram Gopal Varma

Ram Gopal Varma is sharing valuable information on Twitter, when he's not creating controversies.

Today (12 May), Varma dropped a bomb when he posted that actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh was making a Rs225-crore film on the much-revered Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji.

That Riteish is making a film on the Marathi warrior king has been making news for some time. Speculation is rife that Riteish will play the titular role. Last year, Salman Khan had told a mediaperson that he would be shooting for Riteish's film on Shivaji for 5-6 days.

“It's not Mauli, it's the film on Shivaji that I am a part of. It is not a cameo. I will be shooting for 5-6 days, so it's not just a guest appearance like Lai Bhaari," Khan had told a reporter during the success party of Sultan (2016) last year.

Riteish's wife Genelia D'souza Deshmukh had confirmed in August last year that her husband was indeed making a film on Shivaji.

What comes as a surprise is the amount of money being pumped into the project as claimed by Varma. Efforts to contact Riteish yielded no response. He has previously produced a few Marathi films like Balak Palak (2013) and Yellow (2014). He made his acting debut in Marathi cinema with Lai Bhaari (2014).

Coming back to Varma, more than the Shivaji biopic, Varma appeared to be making sarcastic comments about SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali, saying that the Shivaji biopic would turn out to be a much better film than Baahubali.