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is an upcoming 2014 Bollywood action comedy-drama film directed by Farah Khan and produced by Gauri Khan under the banner of Red Chillies Entertainment. The film has an ensemble cast which includes, Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Vivaan Shah, Sonu Sood and Jackie Shroff. The film will be distributed worldwide by Yash Raj Films.[2] This will be the third collaboration of Khan with the director; they previously worked on Main Hoon Na (2004) and Om Shanti Om (2007), the latter of which also featured Padukone as the female lead. The promos of the film revealed that it belongs to a new genre of musical heist.
The film is scheduled to be released on Diwali, 24 October 2014,[3] in three different languages: Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.[4]
Cast
- Shahrukh Khan as Chandramohan Sharma/Charlie
- Deepika Padukone as Mohini Joshi
- Abhishek Bachchan as Nandu Bhide
- Sonu Sood as Jagmohan Prakash
- Boman Irani as Temhton Irani
- Vivaan Shah as Rohan Singh[5]
- Jackie Shroff as Charan Grover[6]
- Special Appearances
- Dino Morea[7]
- Prabhu Deva[8]
- Sarah-Jane Dias[9]
- Malaika Arora Khan[10]
- Anurag Kashyap[11]
- Vishal Dadlani[11]
- Sajid Khan[12]
- Anupam Kher[13]
Production
Plans for the upcoming film began way back in 2005 but the project was shelved in lieu of Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (2007) which also featured SRK and Deepika Padukone. After her 2010 film Tees Maar Khan, Farah began to consider the possibilities of the film and screenwriting was completed by October 2012. The filmmaker stated that she wanted an established actress in the lead role opposite Khan. Names such as Sonakshi Sinha, Asin, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Parineeti Chopra and Katrina Kaif were rumoured to play the role, however Deepika Padukone was finalized, making it her third film with Shah Rukh Khan after Om Shanti Om and Chennai Express (2013). As for the lead role, Khan was one of the director's first choice for the film.[14] The actor was reported to be playing the role of a con artist in the film which has Deepika in the role of a Marathi dancer. At a point, John Abrahamwas to play one of the supporting roles but Sonu Sood replaced him.[15] Boman Irani was confirmed by the director during an interview. In August 2013, Jackie Shroff was finalised to play the film's antagonist.[16] The director's brother Sajid Khan will be making a guest appearance while actress Malaika Arora Khan was also signed to appear in a cameo role.[17]Vivaan Shah will reportedly play the role of a computer hacker. Actor-director Prabhu Deva has performed a dance in a cameo appearance for the film.[18]
Filming
Farah Khan made the official announcement of the film on twitter.[19] The first schedule of filming started in Dubai.[20] Arabian Business reported that a major portion of the film will be shot in the prestigious Atlantis, The Palm.[21] On 23 January 2014, Shah Rukh Khan was injured while shooting for the film at JW Marriott Hotel, Mumbai. Though reported as minor at first, he suffered a fractured shoulder[22] and a torn left knee patella, being advised rest for a while.[23] Mehboob Studios was used as one of the major locations while certain portions were also filmed near the Wilson College. The final schedule was completed in August, 2014 and the film is currently undergoing Post-production work.
Marketing
The first look of the film was launched on 2 January 2014. As part of the promotions, an official Twitter handle was started and several hashtags on the topic trended on social networking sites. The campaign was one of its kind where a digitally signed personal poster was tweeted to followers.[24] The official trailer of the film was released in an event on 14 August 2014 and attached with the prints of Singham Returns.[25]
The trailer of the film was released simultaneously on YouTube, Twitter and the DTH channel Tata Sky.[26] It was also the first film trailer to be released on WhatsApp and Facebook,[27]was viewed over 1.5 million times and earned 360K likes on Facebook within 24 hours. The trailer reportedly earned over 10 million views in a day from all platforms.[28]
The worldwide distribution rights were sold to Yash Raj Films for
1.25 billion (US$20 million), the satellite rights were sold to Zee Network for
650 million (US$11 million) and the music rights to T-Series for
120 million (US$1.9 million), earning a total pre-release revenue of
2.02 billion (US$33 million).[29][30] The film's cast and crew, along with rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh and actress Madhuri Dixit travelled on a promotional tour titled "SLAM!". Starting from 19 September in Houston, it took place in New Jersey, Washington, Toronto,Chicago, Vancouver and San Jose. SLAM! also continued to United Kingdom on 5 October.[31]