Kabir Khan is set to continue his affair with China after the filmmaker was roped in by Trinity Pictures (Eros International’s film production arm), for one of the two Indo-Sino productions, as reported by digital magazine Variety.com.
The other film will be directed by Bang Bang! (2014) director Siddharth Anand. Trinity Pictures has joined hands with Chinese production firm Peacock China's Peacock Mountain Culture & Media and state-owned Huaxia Film Distribution for the two franchise films.
Kabir Khan will helm the travel drama The Zookeeper, which is a tale of an Indian zoo keeper who travels to China to find a panda to return to India with in order to save his zoo. Buzz has it that the makers are likely to rope in a top Indian star and Chinese actress for the same with a large chunk of the film to be shot in the Chengdu city of China. The film’s budget is pegged at $25 million.
Meanwhile, Anand is will helm a cross-cultural romantic drama Love In Beijing, a story of an Indian girl who falls in love with a Chinese man. This film is likely to star a top Indian actress with the budget for this project said to be round $15 million.
“The original stories were developed by the Trinity Pictures Writers' Room, creative teams from both Trinity Pictures and the Chinese film companies worked closely on the scripts to create storylines that blend Sino-Indian culture," said Trinity Pictures, in a statement.
The Zookeeper will be the second film after Tubelight (2017) that Kabir Khan will shoot in China. Tubelight stars Salman Khan and Chinese actress Zhu Zhu. For Anand though, this will be a maiden international project.
The two films are expected to hit the screens in 2018.