Vicky Kaushal may have had his film schedules derailed due to the lockdown, but one film still on track is his next with ‘URI’ director Aditya Dhar – ‘The Immortal Ashwatthama’.
According to reports, the three-part superhero film, which has its roots in the Mahabharata, will roll out in 2021. The actor, who was initially scheduled to begin work on the project after wrapping up Karan Johar’s ambitious ‘Takht’, will now commence the shoot in April 2021.
At a time when many film productions were hit due to the pandemic, director Dhar says that his project wasn’t affected as the team focused on pre-production work. The report states that Vicky will need about 3 months to prep for his role and will get down to training in February 2021.
‘The Immortal Ashwatthama’ was scheduled to be shot in a start-to-finish schedule, spread across 80 to 90 days, in locations such as Greenland, Iceland, Tokyo, New Zealand and Namibia. However, due to lockdown restrictions around the world, the director says that the team will commence shooting in the UK before heading off to Iceland. The director also pointed out that the shooting schedules may change depending on the COVID-crisis.
The film, billed as a superhero action film set in modern times, is being planned as a trilogy but Aditya said they will make the third one depending on the response to the first two. Though the team has cracked the basic idea for all the three parts, they are concentrating on the first one at the moment.
“The film requires a lot of planning because this is something that has never been done before, it is huge. The work is on in terms of writing,” the director said.
Aditya also believes that spectacle films such as ‘The Immortal Ashwatthama’ with a touch of Indian mythology must be served more to the audience. As per the epic Mahabharata, Ashwatthama was the son of guru Dronacharya, who fought for the Kauravas in the battle of Kurukshetra.
“It was high time we brought such stories to the audience, the kind of fantastic stories we have in our mythology. I wonder why nobody made those into films in so many years. My idea is to create something that is at par with everything that is around the world or Hollywood.”
