Karan Johar announced his dream project, Shuddhi, in 2013 with by pulling off a coup by casting Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor in the film. It was to be directed by Karan Malhotra, thereby marking his second collaboration with Hrithik after Agneepath. It was easily among the most anticipated films upcoming it’s announcement and the trade was expecting it to be one of the biggest hits of all time. Following the announcement, there wasn’t any official word on the film from the makers, however, speculations around the subject of this much anticipated project kept it aloof in the media, despite no communication from the makers.
A year later in 2014, it was revealed that Hrithik Roshan has backed out of the film for reasons best known to the actor. Soon after, the leading lady, Kareena Kapoor too decided to take a back seat. As there were rumours of the film being completely shelved, in a sudden turn of events, Salman Khan announced that he has stepped in for the magnum opus.The reports of Salman coming on board created unprecedented hype, more so, considering that it was to mark his first collaboration with Karan’s production house after an extended appearance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.
It was announced as a Diwali 2016 release, and given the career peak he was in, the trade pegged yet again as a potential all time grosser. Yet again, in sudden turn of events, Salman too stepped out of the film and took to his social media to reveal that Varun Dhawan will now step into his shoes in the film. Later on, Karan Johar confirmed the development and relaunched the film with Karan Malhotra as the director and Alia Bhatt coming on board as the female lead.
Shuddhi was a big scale reincarnation-based revenge story with the lead character playing the character of a Shiva Bhakt in one era and a corrupt police officer in the other.
Year after year, Shuddhi continued to grab the headlines, before finally getting shelved, as the director Karan Malhotra moved onto Shamshera with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead. But what was Shuddhi all about? Well, we hear, it was a big scale reincarnation-based revenge story with the lead character playing the character of a Shiva Bhakt in one era and a corrupt police officer in the other. It was a quintessential revenge drama, against the backdrop of reincarnation, with two diamatrically different character sketches. Contrary to the rumours, it was not based on the Amish Tripathi novel, Immortal of Meluha. But alas, the script now lies somewhere in the backyard of Dharma office, waiting for some director’s attention to fall on it, and thereby get a revamp with a top superstar. Till then, the journey of Shuddhi has been an exciting one, continuing to stay relevant, hitting the headlines, even 8 years after it’s first announcement.
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