Pankaj Tripathi shared his first look in Shakeela, the multilingual biopic starring Richa Chadha, on Monday. Tripathi is playing the role of a glamorous actor, or as his Instagram post describes it, “The South Indian superstar”.
Tripathi, who has primarily acted in Hindi films, said in a press release, “I have a beautiful part in the film. I play an actor for the first time in my career. I have always wanted to play an actor on screen and bring out the idiosyncrasies of artists on screen. It’s an interesting and colourful character.”
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Shakeela is a biopic of the South Indian actor of the same name, who has worked in the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam industries in over 250 films. She is widely considered to have became a sex symbol in the 1990 to early 2000 era. Shakeela also stars Sheeva Rana, Ester Valerie Noronha, and Rajeev Pillai.
Though Tripathi and Chadha have collaborated on other films, this is the first time that they have been cast together in leading roles. Tripathi and Chadha first appeared in the Hindi dark comedy crime film series Gangs of Wasseypur, followed by a number of films, including Fukrey (2013) and its sequel Fukrey Returns (2017), Masaan (2015), and the upcoming Hindi film Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai.
Shakeela is set to release in theatres on November 25, on Christmas day, after delays caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The release date was recently announced when Richa Chadha shared her first look for the film.
Written and directed by filmmaker and journalist Indrajit Lankesh, Shakeela is produced by Sammy Nanwani and Sahil Nanwani under the banner of Sammy’s Magic Cinema Motion Picture Production, UFO Moviez and Zee Music Company. The film’s dialogues have been written by Rohan A Bajaj, while editing has been handled by Ballu Saluja.
