Sidharth Malhotra, Parineeti Chopra's wedding film to go on floors in UP next week

Actor Sidharth Malhotra and actress Parineeti Chopra were last seen together in Hasee Toh Phasee (2014) which revolved around a wedding. In the film, directed by Vinil Mathew, Malhotra played the groom Nikhil who falls for his fiancée's eccentric but brilliant younger sister Meeta (Chopra). In their next film together too there will be a wedding, but likely at gunpoint.

The two will star in producers Ekta Kapoor and Shailesh R Singh’s next production, tentatively called Shotgun Shaadi. The film, directed by first-time filmmaker Prashant Singh, is about to begin filming in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, next week. Shooting will later move to Bihar.

Singh has previously assisted Sujoy Ghosh on Aladin (2009) and Aanand L Rai on Tanu Weds Manu (2011) and Raanjhanaa (2013).

Malhotra and Chopra have already begun prep work on the film and were seen at Juhu’s JW Marriott hotel together. The leads have reportedly been working on getting the Bihari accent right for the film.

In an interview with Mumbai Mirror this May, Kapoor had confirmed the project and claimed it to be her most commercial work. “That’s my Grease Lightning [a 1977 American biographical film of champion race driver Wendell Scott] in today’s times with Sid [Sidharth Malhotra]. Set in a small town in North India, it’s my most massy film,” she had said.

Shotgun Shaadi will tackle the rising incidents of groom kidnappings in Bihar. The grooms are kidnapped so that the brides’ families can avoid paying dowry. Malhotra is said to play a thug who assists in these kidnappings.

The actor, who hasn’t had a hit film since Kapoor & Sons (2016), is also starring the Captain Vikram Batra biopic with Kiara Advani, while Chopra has a number of films lined up – Namastey England (2018), Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (2019) and Kesari (2019). The success of this project would greatly benefit both their careers.