MUMBAI: A film with a triple role for its hero in this day and age? Yes! And that too from the sophisticated new-millennium house of cinematic entertainment Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions.

The film by the director of We Are Family Siddharth Malhotra was going to be full-on tribute to the cinema of Manmohan Desai and the whole lavish turbulent era of music masti and melodrama in the 1970s.

Malhotra, it is reliably learnt, wants to make the film with his buddy Shahid Kapoor playing the three roles. With this one stroke Siddharth wanted to end the long-standing feud between Karan Johar and Shahid Kapoor.

Shahid, it must be noted, has not worked in a single Dharma Production to date since he turned down Kaal. Malhotra, who is equally fond of Karan and Shahid, had already made the olive-branch offering to both his friends.

Both Shahid and Karan were game for the triple-role film. But soon after Dharma decided to go for it, Rajnikanth’s new film Rana with the mega-star playing three roles was announced.

This understandably put worry ceases on the brows of everyone at Dharma working towards the three-role masala movie. Now discreet inquiries are being made from Dharma about the plot of Rajnikanth’s film.

As things stand Dharma’s triple-role project is on hold until the plot of Rajni’s Rana becomes clearer.

Malhotra tells Businessofcinema.com, “Yes I am working on a triple-role film but we heard Rajnikanth is also doing a triple role. Right now our project is on pause.”