Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar to star in Amar Kaushik's Bala

Bhumi Pednekar will again act with her Dum Laga Ke Haisha (2015) co-star Ayushmann Khurrana for their next film together. Titled Bala, the romantic comedy will featuring Khurrana as a young man nicknamed Bala who is prematurely balding and Pednekar as a young woman fighting against skin discrimination. The film will be produced by Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films and Stree (2018) director Amar Kaushik will helm the project.

Khurrana recently announced that he would be seen in and as Dream Girl for his next film with Nushrat Bharucha. This quirky comedy with his former co-star seems right up his alley.

Meanwhile, Pednekar has Abhishek Chaubey's Sonchiriya and Alankrita Shrivastava's Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare lined up for 2019. She is also part of the ensemble cast in Karan Johar's historical drama Takht (2020) with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.

Vijan, who confirmed the project to daily tabloid Mumbai Mirror, said the film was a hilarious story but also made you think. "Through their journey, the film impresses on the fact that most of us are usually attracted to outward beauty and don't go beyond that to understand the real person. The two characters are very interesting and easy to relate to, so is their milieu," the producer said.

The producer also shared that Khurrana will be donning prosthetics for the film. He will be working with both Khurrana and Pednekar for the first time.

Stree director Kaushik, who is also on board the horror-comedy's sequel, was initially supposed to be the creative director on Bala, but eventually decided to step up as director.  

"Bala is going to be a fun and very relatable film for the audience, bringing to the fore problems that many of us face every day, " the director told the tabloid. "Associating with Dinesh and his team once again is just so lovely and emotional after the super experience we had on Stree."

Bala is expected to be begin filming in March and is due to be released in September 2019.