EXCLUSIVE: Not Varun Dhawan, Vicky Kaushal to now star in Shashank Khaitan’s Mr Lele

Last year, Varun Dhawan had announced that he will be stepping in to play the male lead in Shashank Khaitan’s next film Mr Lele. The film, an action thriller, is apparently also a comic take on being a spy. Janhvi Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar were supposed to star opposite Varun in the film. But the actor decided to opt out of the film and wanted Shashank to hone the script.

While Shashank and VD will mostly team up for another film now, we hear that the filmmaker is putting Mr Lele back in place. A source tells us, “Shashank has reworked the script of Mr Lele and now, he’s ready to roll with the film this year itself. Varun won’t star in it anymore but he has got Vicky Kaushal on board for the movie now. Vicky liked the whole concept of the film and has already given his nod to the project.” This will be Vicky’s third film with Karan Johar’s banner Dharma Productions after Raazi and Bhoot.

 

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Interestingly, the plans went for a topsy turvy change due to a recent chain of events. The source adds, “Shashank was all set to start filming Yoddha with Shahid Kapoor from February. But the Kabir Singh actor bowed out of the project last minute citing creative differences. The director was left in a fix and he instead decided to first finish Mr Lele which is a quick film. They plan to start shoot around March and intend to wrap it within a month’s time.” Vicky, on the other hand, has the Udham Singh biopic followed by YRF’s next comedy with Manushi Chhillar lined up. He has to begin work on Ashwatthama but the gigantic film still needs a bit of pre-production work and will kickstart only later this year.

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