Rana Daggubati will replace Nana Patekar in Housefull 4. Patekar stepped down from his role in the film after being accused of sexual harassment by actor Tanushree Dutta.
Daggubati reportedly plays a ghazal singer in the film. According to his manager, he will join the shoot of Housefull 4 in Mumbai next week.
The spokesperson for Daggubati told Silverscreen that the actor decided to join the multi-starrer as it was a genre he had not done before. “If you see thus far, Rana has not really ventured into the outright comedy space. So this will be a new experience for him. Besides, Akshay (Kumar) has already worked with Rana and they share a certain comfort level.”
Akshay Kumar, the lead actor of the Housefull series, will share screenspace with actors Bobby Deol and Riteish Deshmukh. Kriti Sanon, Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde are the female leads of the film.
The original director, Sajid Khan, stepped down from his role following a spate of sexual harassment allegations. Akshay issued a statement in which he said that he would not work with a proven sexual offender and that all such accusations must be heard.
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Following this incident, Farhad Samji was brought in to direct the fourth installment of the Housefull series. Production was also stopped for a while when the #MeToo accusations began to stream in about actor Nana Patekar and director Sajid Khan. The spokesperson for the film told us that work has since resumed.
The first Housefull film released in 2010 and proved to be very successful, reportedly grossing around Rs 116 crores (having been made on a budget of around Rs 45 crores). Housefull 2 and 3 were profitable as well, prompting the makers to extend the series to accommodate a fourth film.
In the latest iteration, Akshay and Riteish play Sam and Hasmukh Patel. Bobby Deol plays Raj Patel.