It's been long Shahid Kapoor hasn't been seen paired opposite a new actress on the silver screen. In last eight years, the actor has mostly worked with only already established actresses, such like Shraddha Kapoor (Haider, Batti Gul Meter Chalu), Deepika Padukone (Padmaavat), Kangana Ranaut (Rangoon), Alia Bhatt (Shaandar, Udta Punjab), Sonakshi Sinha (R... Rajkumar), Priyanka Chopra (Teri Meri Kahaani) and Sonam Kapoor (Mausam). However, this is soon going to be changed as we have learnt that a new face will be paired opposite Shahid in his next film.
According to a source, the makers of Arjun Reddy remake are hunting for a fresh new actress to play the lead opposite Shahid in the movie. "The leading actress hasn't been finalized yet. However, the makers have been scouting for a new girl to play Shalini Pandey's character and you can see a new face almost every day at the office of Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde who are producing this film in the direction of Sandeep Reddy Bhanga," a source told us.
Earlier it was being expected that Shalini Pandey who played the leading lady opposite Vijay Devrakonda in the original might be retained in the remake as well. But we have heard that the makers aren't keen to go with her as they want to bring a complete novelty to this film. What's more, we have also learnt that the title of the remake will remain the same, i.e. Arjun Reddy.
"The Hindi version will have a North Indian setting and will be mostly shot in India along with one schedule abroad. The makers have made a couple of changes to the script in order to suit the sensibilities of Hindi audience but at the same time they have also kept the core emotion of the original storyline intact and have retained the spirit and essence of it without making much differences," the source added.
The story of the Hindi adaptation will be based in Mumbai while the medical college will be in Delhi unlike Mangalore in the original. Siddharth-Garima, the writer duo who has penned films like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Goliyon Ki Raasleela-Ramleela and Akshay Kumar's Toilet Ek Prem Katha has come on board to write the dialogues for this remake which goes on floors in July.
We've also learnt that the official announcement of Arjun Reddy that happened on Friday night was actually a sudden decision by the makers. "A week ago, Sandeep Vanga, Shahid and all had decided that the film will be announced only after the leading lady is finalized. But on Friday, Sandeep realized it was May 11, exactly the date on which Arjun Reddy (Telugu) was announced and hence it became an auspicious day and then the team was asked to announce it on Twitter without any fanfare," the source told us also adding that Arjun Reddy will officially be announced properly after all the major casts are finalized.
