lead: Watch out for the star kids

Big-budget remakes, sequels and biopics are set to rule Bollywood 2020, with many star children trying their luck

Saibal Chatterjee

The new year has started off with talked-about releases. At one end of the spectrum are the Rajinikanth-starrer Darbar (Tamil, Telugu and Hindi) and the hyper-jingoistic historicalTanhaji: The Unsung Warrior; at the other is the restrainedChhapaak, Meghna Gulzar’s take on a real-life acid attack survivor. These three titles foreshadow what lies ahead for Bollywood fans in 2020.

Amid the usual complement of big-budget remakes, sequels and biopics driven by Bollywood A-listers, a spate of films featuring the industry’s next generation of stars will jostle for space in a crowded marketplace. Sara Ali Khan, Ananya Panday and Janhvi Kapoor, all three industry kids, have new releases lined up this year.

The talented Sara Ali Khan’s next release is Imtiaz Ali’sAaj Kal, believed to be a follow-up to 2009’sLove Aaj Kal, which starred the actress’ star-father Saif Ali Khan opposite Deepika Padukone. The new romantic drama, which has the 24-year-old Khan cast opposite Kartik Aaryan, is slated to hit the screens on Valentine’s Day, February 14.

TheKedarnath andSimmba star is also the lead actress of another upcoming spinoff, David Dhawan’sCoolie No. 1, a remake of the 1995 comedy of the same name. The film, co-starring Varun Dhawan, is slated for an early May release.

Ananya Panday, 21, who ended 2019 with the middlingPati Patni Aur Woh, will be seen in 2020 in Maqbool Khan’sKhaali Peeli, co-starring Ishaan Khatter, 24, Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor’s half-brother. This promises to be a crucial year for Khatter, too. He has a key role in Mira Nair’s six-part BBC One series, A Suitable Boy, currently being filmed on locations in India.

Jahnvi Kapoor, 22, who debuted opposite Ishaan Khatter inDhadak (2018), is the female lead role in as many as three 2020 movies —Roohi Afza, which has her in a double role opposite Rajkummar Rao,The Kargil Girl, a biopic about India’s first woman combat pilot Gunjan Saxena, andDostana 2.

Pooja Bedi’s daughter Alaia F., 22, makes her Bollywood debut in the Saif Ali Khan and Tabu romcomJawaani Jaaneman, while two other industry children, Priyaank Sharma (Padmini Kolhapure’s son) and Riva Kishen (Ravi Kishen’s daughter), have already seen their first release, Sab Kushal Mangal, sink without a trace.

Many of the Bollywood star children are already doing pretty well for themselves. Their 2020 films will serve to determine the direction their fledgling careers will take. Jackie Shroff’s son Tiger Shroff, 29, will appear this year inBaaghi 3, which co-stars Shraddha Kapoor, Shakti Kapoor’s daughter. Shraddha, on her part, has already completed a decade in showbiz. She was inBaaghi but sat outBaaghi 2, in which Disha Patani played the female lead.

Next up, Shraddha Kapoor squares off against Varun Dhawan, director David Dhawan’s son, in Remo D’Souza’sStreet Dancer 3D, scheduled for release on January 24. Alia Bhatt, one of Bollywood’s most bankable actors today, will be in three major 2020 releases — Ayan Mukherji’s Brahmastra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’sGangubai Kathiawadi and Mahesh Bhatt’s Sadak 2.

Both Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal, both on a roll, will have several shots at glory in 2020. While Kaushal plays the title role in Shoojit Sircar’sSardar Udham Singh, Khurrana will be matching their acting skills with none other than Amitabh Bachchan in the same director’sGulabo Sitabo.

Disha Patani, one of the few among the new breed of Bollywood divas who has no parental links with the industry, has two major films on the way:Malang andRadhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, in which she is cast opposite Salman Khan.Radhe will be Patani’s second film with Salman after 2019’s Bharat.

While Shah Rukh Khan might not have a release in 2020, Aamir Khan is in the midst of the self-producedLaal Singh Chadda, an official Hindi remake of the 1994 Tom Hanks-starrerForrest Gump. Kareena Kapoor plays his love interest in the film helmed by Advait Chandan, who made his directorial debut in 2017 with the Aamir Khan production Secret Superstar.

Fatima Sana Shaikh, 27, who caught the world’s attention inDangal and then appeared in the box office dudThugs of Hindostan, is, likePatani, is an outsider who has found a foothold in Bollywood. Her association with the industry goes back a long way — she began as a child star in the Kamalahasan starrerChachi 420 (1997).

Bollywood mainstay Akshay Kumar, who had four releases in 2019, will tot up the same number this year as well. His 2020 films: Rohit Shetty’s tough cop thrillerSooryavanshi, Raghava Lawrence’sLaxmmi Bomb, Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s historical dramaPrithviraj and Farhad Samji’sBachchan Pandey.

Ajay Devgn, too, has multiple films lined up in 2020, includingTanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, which released on January 10 alongside Meghna Gulzar’s highly anticipatedChhapaak, featuring Deepika Padukone as a real-life acid attack victim who rebuilds her life against all odds.

Among the other Devgn releases of the year is the sports filmMaidaan, which tells the story of the life of the legendary Indian football coach, Syed Abdul Rahim, who masterminded several triumphs for the nation in the 1950s and 1960s, the last one of which, a gold medal at the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games, came a year before he was felled by cancer at age of 53.

Devgn is also the producer of Hansal Mehta’sChalaang, one of 2020’s most exciting films. The film’s cast has Rajkummar Rao and Nushrat Bharucha.Chalaang is a social comedy set in small town in Uttar Pradesh.

The much-awaited Ranbir Kapoor-starrerBrahmastra, the first film of Ayan Mukherji’s planned fantasy-adventure trilogy, and 83, in which Ranveer Singh plays former all-rounder Kapil Dev, who led India to a surprise cricket World Cup victory in 1983, are two titles that will be surrounded by an enormous buzz when they arrive at the multiplexes.

The other films that Hindi movie fans will watch out for are Anubhav Sinha’sThappad, starring Taapsee Pannu, Mahesh Bhatt’sSadak 2, a sequel to the 1991 hit and Homi Adajania’sAngrezi Medium, which sees Irrfan Khan returning to the arclights.Angrezi Medium co-stars Kareena Kapoor and Radhika Madan, a promising actress seen in 2019 inMard Ko Dard Nahin Hota andPataakha.

The year promises to be a big one for Bollywood sports dramas. Besides 83 andMaidaan, in the pipeline are Nagraj Manjule’sJhund, about a real-life Nagpur professor who grooms the city’s street children and puts together a football team, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s boxing dramaToofan, starring Farhan Akhtar, and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’sPanga, in which Kangana Ranaut plays a kabaddi player.