Alia Bhatt is gearing up for the theatrical release of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed period drama, Gangubai. While the promotions are going on in full swing, we have exclusively learnt that her next after Gangubai will see a direct to digital release. According to our sources, Darlings, which marks her debut as a producer alongside Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, will see a direct to digital premiere on Netflix this summer.
“It’s a dark comedy and the makers felt that the film will be able to reach its target audience through the OTT medium. The conversations were on with multiple players and it's finally Netflix, who has bagged the exclusive streaming rights. The film has been sold for a sum of Rs 80 crore, thereby making it one of the biggest deals for a female led film,” revealed a source close to the development.
The film will stream on the digital platform this summer and is currently in the post production stage. The source informs that it’s in the similar zone as the soon to be released Gehraiyaan fronted by Deepika Padukone, which fetched in the range of Rs 80 to 85 crore for an Amazon Prime premiere. It was a part of Dharma Productions deal with the streaming platform, who reaped huge profits from Shershaah. Dharma is producing multiple other originals for Amazon and we shall have more updates on that soon.
Talking of Darlings, it’s said to be a dark comedy about a mother – daughter relationship. Shefali Shah will be seen playing Alia’s mother in the film whereas Vijay Varma and Roshan Mathew also feature in key roles. Darlings is directed by Jasmeet K Reen with Vishal Bharadwaj on board as the music composer. Darlings aside, the other Alia Bhatt films include the soon to be released Gangubai followed by RRR, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani and Bhansali’s Baiju Bawra alongside Ranveer.
She is said to be in talks with Kortala Siva for Jr. NTR’s upcoming Pan Indian film too, and one awaits an official confirmation from the makers on the same. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.