Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan are joining forces on the big screen once again in Laal Singh Chaddha, a Bollywood take on Tom Hanks's Hollywood classic, Forrest Gump. It was confirmed this week that the Jab We Met actress would star in the remake.
The film is set for a December 2020 release and is being produced by Khan's Aamir Khan Productions, as well as Viacom18 Studios, according to Bollywood industry insiders.
Rumours that Kapoor was attached to the project began to circulate last week, suggesting the 3 Idiots co-stars would team up for the movie, but they has since been confirmed by Bollywood journalists, including Rahul Raut, who have suggested the film will start shooting in October.
"My next film is finalised; it is called Laal Singh Chaddha. It is being made by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Aamir Khan Productions together. It will be directed by Advait Chandan. It is an adaptation of Hollywood film Forrest Gump," Khan confirmed to reporters back in March. Adding, "We have bought the rights from Paramount ... I am playing the lead role of Lal Singh."
Laal Singh Chaddha has been written by Atul Kulkarni and will be directed by Advait Chandan. Kapoor and Khan have starred in a number of films together in the past, including 3 Idiots and Talaash.
Forrest Gump at 25
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the much-loved film, which was originally released in the US on June 23, 1994. The film is based on Winston Groom's 1986 novel of the same name, and won a number of awards, including six Oscars at the 67th Academy Awards.
Reflecting on the fact that the movie almost didn't get made, Hanks revealed in a press conference in 2015: "The studio was one day away from pulling the plug on this one movie I was going to make, and the director [Robert Zemeckis] came to my house and said, 'Look, this is going to fall apart because they won’t give us the budget for shooting this one sequence, and we’ve got to have this sequence.'"
It was then proposed that Hanks and Zemeckis would split the cost of filming the sequence, co-funding the project in part.
"I said, ‘All right,’" Hanks added, "and the sequence was Forrest running across the country ... We were 48 hours away from it being shut down. So I’m glad that worked out."
_________________
Read more:
Shah Rukh Khan and son Aryan will dub the Hindi version of 'The Lion King'
Bollywood star Huma Qureshi: 'I’m the superhero of my own life'
There is more to Indian films than Bollywood blockbusters
_________________
