Amitabh Bachchan, the veteran Hindi actor, has joined the cast of the Hindi adaptation of The Intern, the 2005 American comedy drama, the film’s co-actor Deepika Padukone announced on social media on Monday.
Padukone also released the film’s poster.
Bachchan has been roped in a replacement for late veteran actor Rishi Kapoor. In January 2020, the makers had announced that the adaptation would star Kapoor and Padukone. While the production was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kapoor died of cancer in April 2020.
Bachchan, who was last seen in filmmaker Shoojit Sircar’s Gulabo Sitabo in 2020, will mark his third collaboration with Padukone. They have previously worked together in Prakash Jha’s Aarakshan (2011) and Sircar’s Piku (2015).
The Intern stars Robert De Niro, and Anne Hathaway. Directed, written, and produced by Nancy Meyers, the film follows the unlikely friendship between a fashion company’s workaholic CEO (played by Hathaway) and a retired man (played by De Niro) who joins as an intern in the former’s company. In the Hindi version, while Padukone will essay Hathaway’s role, Bachchan will enact the role of De Niro.
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The adaptation is set to directed by Amit Sharma, who has earlier helmed Badhaai Ho (2018), who is also serving as one of the co-producers of the film. The screenplay and dialogues will be written by Akshat Ghildial and Mitesh Shah. While Padukone will produce the film along with Sunir Kheterpal, the film will be co-produced by Aleya Sen, Hemant Bhandari, Gaurav Bose, and Sharma. The rest of the cast and crew members are yet to be announced.
The film is expected to release in the summer of 2022.
Meanwhile, both Bachchan and Padukone are awaiting the releases of their films. While the release of Bachchan’s mystery thriller Chehre was postponed from its April 9 date due to an increase in Covid-19 cases, Padukone will appear alongside her husband and actor Ranveer Singh in 83, a biopic on cricketer Kapil Dev, and in Pathan also featuring Shah Rukh Khan.