Director Tigmanshu Dhulia’s dream project ‘Milan Talkies’ is all set to hit the theatres this weekend. The film was first announced in 2012 with Imran Khan as the lead actor. Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures was bankrolling it. Priyanka Chopra was brought on board as the leading a few weeks after Khan was signed as the lead actor. Imran was supposed to shoot for the film right after finishing work on ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Again’, which, incidentally was produced by Ekta’s company. For some reason, the film did not take off for a very long time and there were rumours that it was shelved.
In 2013, Imran had three releases (‘Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola’, ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Again’ and ‘Gori Tere Pyar Mein’), all of which bombed at the box-office and there were reports that Balaji was contemplating replacing him with Shahid Kapoor. Even with reports of Shahid coming on board, the film was not making much of a headway.
Then, in 2015, the film was re-announced as ‘Bhoole Se Naam Na Lo Pyaar Ka’, with Ayushmann Khurrana and Bhumi Pednekar heading the cast. The lead pair had just delivered a hit in the form of ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’ and one thought the film would finally go on the floors. However, that was not to happen. The film failed to take off again and Balaji Motion Pictures, too, opted out of the film.
Last year, the project was finally revived by a new company named Filmy Keeda Productions with a new cast headed by Ali Fazal and Shraddha Srinath. Now with the film releasing this Friday, Dhulia’s six year old dream of telling this story on the celluloid, is finally realised.