Ajay Devgn’s fact-finding mission
Fact is stranger than fiction; at least that is what Ajay Devgn has realised lately
The actor who’s been hooked on to real-life stories in the recent past will continue similar endeavours in the months to come. His last two releases Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior and Bhuj: The Pride of India took us back to the 17th century and then to 1971 war, respectively. While the first one was a box-office juggernaut, the latter was considered one of the worst films ever to drop on the OTT platform. Even so, it appears that the idea of doing films on real instances or remakes has gone down well with Ajay.
“There are four more films coming up from Ajay Devgn, which are based on real-life stories. Apart from the fictionalised RRR, Runway 34 and the comedy Thank God, Ajay’s next few releases are either historical or period dramas,” says a trade source. “He’s beginning to like the genre and has told his team that he’s looking forward to gripping stories. He’s also asked his team to work on a Part 2 for the Unsung Warrior series after Tanhaji,” adds the source.
Meanwhile, the third in the period drama series, after Tanhaji and Bhuj, will be Gangubai Kathiwawadi, in which he plays the role of real person called Karim Lala.
“Ajay had played a similar fictionalised role of Haji Mastan in the 2010-film Once Upon a Time in Mumbai but the role of Karim Lala in the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film will be a support system for Alia Bhatt who plays the role of the brothel owner Gangubai,” the source adds.
Later, Ajay will also play the role of the football coach Syed Abdul Rahim in the Amit-Sharma directorial Maidaan for Boney Kapoor. Ajay had apparently already shot for a majority of the film before the pandemic and needs to complete the shoot now. Maidaan revolves around football and has a lot of VFX. Ajay’s next film, we’ve learnt, will be Chanakya directed by Neeraj Pandey on the life of the scholar and jurist from the 4th century BCE. Ajay is slated to go bald for the shoot of the film and hence has kept the shoot in abeyance so that he can shoot it when he does not have a barrage of other movies lined up. Meanwhile, Ajay’s close confidante and producer Kumar Mangat has now announced that he’ll be making Raid 2, the second part of the 2018-film Raid, with Ajay in the lead. According to the source,“While Raid was based on a famous income tax raid on politician Sardar Inder Singh — a role played by Saurabh Shukla, the second part will be based on the perfume king Piyush Jain in Kanpur recently. Interestingly, the raid is also claimed to be a case of mistaken identity where the wrong person was raided and a lot of cash and unaccounted gold recovered.”
Ajay also has the web show Rudra: The Edge of Darkness, a remake of Luther and the Hindi remake of Kaithi coming up.
“APART FROM THE FICTIONALISED RRR, RUNWAY 34 AND THE COMEDY THANK GOD, AJAY’S NEXT FEW RELEASES ARE EITHER HISTORICAL OR PERIOD DRAMAS. HE’S BEGINNING TO LIKE THE GENRE.” —SOURCE