Applause Entertainment announces movie with Vidya Balan

Aditya Birla-owned content studio Applause Entertainment has partnered with Ellipsis Entertainment, known for films like Neerja and Tumhari Sulu, for a new film starring Vidya Balan, Prateik Gandhi of Scam 1992 fame, Ileana D’Cruze and Sendhil Ramamurthy. The untitled romantic comedy-drama will be directed by ad filmmaker Shirsha Guha Thakurta.

“The subject of love remains intriguing and debated. We were keen to tackle relationship fatigue by coming up with something that is dynamic, nuanced, relatable, uplifting and humorous, all in the same breath. This is probably the story of your life or definitely one that you’ve seen one or more of your friends go through,” producers Tanuj Garg, Atul Kasbekar and Swati Iyer, partners at Ellipsis Entertainment said in a statement.

Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment called the film is a “sophisticated romance that subverts all notions of love and fidelity in modern times.”

To be sure, trade experts expect the film exhibition business to make a full recovery by 2022 when a series of big-budget movies are lined up for release. That’s despite a healthy pipeline of Bollywood movies set to hit the theatres later this year.

The coming months will see big star vehicles, including Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathan, Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt’s long-delayed Brahmastra, and Fighter starring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone, the last of which has already been scheduled for January 2023. The third instalment of Salman Khan’s Tiger franchise is expected to arrive in 2022, as is Prabhas’ two big offerings - Adipurush co-starring Saif Ali Khan, and an untitled film with Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan. That apart, Tiger Shroff’s Ganpat and Heropanti 2 will hit the theatres, besides Akshay Kumar’s Ram Setu and Bachchan Pandey. Mayday, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn, will also vie for eyeballs in 2022.