‘Animal’ is all about action and emotion: Producer Murad Khetani on Ranbir Kapoor-starrer

By PTI

MUMBAI: Producer Murad Khetani, known for backing films like ‘Mubarakan’, ‘Kabir Singh’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, says his Ranbir Kapoor-starrer movie ‘Animal’ is a larger-than-life visual spectacle, laced with heroism.

Billed as a crime drama, ‘Animal’ is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, who made his Hindi directorial debut with 2019 blockbuster ‘Kabir Singh’ (remake of his 2017 Telugu hit ‘Arjun Reddy’). The upcoming feature also stars Anil Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Rashmika Mandanna.

“It is a challenging film. But we have a great team. Sandeep has written the story and he narrated it to Ranbir and Anil Kapoor, they liked it and agreed to came on board. It has action, emotion, heroism, larger-than-life visuals. We have our director and actor Rashmika from (south region) and we will release it there,” Khetani told PTI.

Produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series, Khetani’s Cine1 Studios and the director’s brother Pranay Reddy Vanga’s Bhadrakali Pictures, ‘Animal’ is set to release on August 11, 2023. Besides ‘Animal’, Khetani is also working on the Indian adaptation of 2019’s widely acclaimed Turkish drama ‘Mircale in Cell No. 7’.

The film directed by Mehmet Ada Oztekin, is a story of love between a mentally-ill father who was wrongly accused of murder and his six-year-old daughter. He said when he saw ‘Mircale in Cell No. 7’ he instantly fell in love with the movie and began the process of taking the rights.

“It is a challenge to adapt the film for the Indian audience because the film was made based on its own culture and milieu. It is important to adapt it in the right way. We are working on the script,” Khetani added.

The producer also revealed that he has bought the rights to Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit’s 1988 iconic film ‘Tezaab’. The action romance film was produced and directed by N Chandra and featured chartbuster tracks like “Ek do teen’, ‘Keh do ke tum’ and ‘Sogaya ye jahaan’.

“We have the rights of Tezaab. We are working on the script and then we will approach the director and producer,” he said. The producer is riding high on the success of his latest film ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’.

The Kartik Aaryan-starrer horror comedy, which released on May 20 has minted Rs 164.71 crore in 22 days. The film is a sequel to Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan-starrer 2007 psychological horror comedy of the same name.

Khetani said there are plans to take the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa’ franchise forward with the third part. “We have got so much love and acceptance from the audience, so we will definitely take it ahead. It will take time and we will have to work on the script a lot. The story of ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ has to be better than the second part. There is more responsibility,” he added.