MUMBAI: Director duo Abbas-Mustan, who have been signed by Venus Records and Tapes Pvt Ltd for their upcoming film, have now approached Akshay Kumar for the lead role.
Confirming the development to Businessofcinema.com, Venus Records and Tapes, director Champak Jain says, “For the Abbas-Mustan film, we are in talks with Akshay Kumar. The rest of the cast is also being finalised.”
Venus is planning to make three films with directors Abbas-Mustan, David Dhawan and Priyadarshan. Amongst them, Abbas-Mustan’s would be the first one to roll.
Speaking about the total budget of the three films, Jain reveals, “All the films will be big budget projects and we are planning to invest around Rs 60 crores (Rs 600 million) for the three films.”
As has already been reported by Businessofcinema.com, Venus is planning to launch a Rs 5 billion (Rs 500 crores) IPO by the end of this year and hence is also stepping up on its film production plans.
Akshay Kumar has earlier worked with Abbas – Mustan in movies like Khiladi, Ajnabee and Aitraaz.
Abaas-Mustan’s last release, Naqaab starring Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna and Urvashi Sharma didn’t fare well at the box office. Their other film, Mr. Fraud is still in the making and stars Sanjay Dutt and Bipasha Basu in the lead.
Related story:
Venus to launch Rs 5 billion IPO by year end
