Renowned South filmmaker Vishnu Vardhan, who made a strong Bollywood debut with the highly acclaimed patriotic hit Shershaah starring Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani, is on everyone’s radar for his next Hindi film.
Pinkvilla has exclusively learned from reliable industry sources that the Chennai-based director was in Mumbai recently for several meetings. Buzz in the trade is that Vishnu has given his consent to direct a big budget patriotic thriller based on the Pahalgam terror attacks, which will be produced by Ekta Kapoor, Tanuj Garg and Atul Kasbekar.
According to sources close to the development, "Vishnu found the content extremely engaging and exciting, due to which he immediately decided to join."
Although this development is being talked about a lot, the makers were not available for comment when contacted for official confirmation.
If the project turns out to be as successful as expected, industry insiders believe that this patriotic thriller could emerge as a huge commercial and critical success, given Vishnu Vardhan’s track record in handling emotionally charged, high-stakes narratives.
Earlier, Vishnu Vardhan had debuted in Bollywood with the film Shershaah. The film is a biographical action war drama based on the life of Vikram Batra, who was martyred during the Kargil war.
The film, starring Sidharth Malhotra in a dual role, also stars Kiara Advani, Shiv Pandit, Mir Sarwar, Raj Arjun and others in lead roles. The film premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 12 August 2021.
Talking about Vishnu Vardhan’s work, the filmmaker previously directed the Tamil-language romantic action thriller Nesippaya. The film tells the story of Arjun, a devoted lover, who travels to Portugal to rescue his ex-girlfriend Diya after she is framed for a crime involving a business tycoon’s son.
In the film R. It stars Akash Murali and Aditi Shankar in lead roles along with Sarathkumar, Prabhu, Khushboo, Kalki Koechlin, Shiv Pandit, George Cora and others. This romantic action film received mixed reviews from critics upon release.
Also read: Exclusive: Shershaah director Vishnu Vardhan to direct Ekta Kapoor, Tanuj Garg’s political thriller