Actor Pankaj Tripathi will star in the biopic on adult star Shakeela that is being directed by Indrajit Lankesh.
The film has Richa Chadha in the titular role and will depict the life of the actress covering her young days to her becoming a nationwide phenomena as an adult actress in the late 90s. In the official press statement, it is said that Tripathi will be playing the role of a south film actor from the 90s and has started preparing for the role.
Tripathi said, “I am delighted to be a part of this biopic. It talks about the life of Shakeela that people need to hear and my character is someone who is her friend and also an actor. It is amazing all the stories, anecdotes and incidents that have happened in her life. Glad I could be part of this film.”
As reported recently, the film team is currently shooting in a small town in Karnataka called Tirthahalli. Talking about the movie, Richa said, “The looks span over years, and with each passing time, her look changed. It is challenging to show this, but for me as an actor it’s gratifying that I get to grow with the real character on celluloid.”
Recommended
Shakeela, who hails from Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, has featured in over 100 B-grade and softcore movies in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Telugu. Her films have been dubbed and released in Nepalese, Chinese, and Sinhalese, apart from most of the Indian languages. The film is expected to release in early 2019.
Tripathi will also be seen in Stree, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, in Drive – an action drama directed by Tarun Mansukhani and Super 30, directed by Vikas Bahl. He also has the web-series Mirzapur for Amazon Prime and will return as the mysterious Guruji in Netflix’s Sacred Games.