Murad Khetani

Updated: Jul 1, 2021 - 6:16 PM IST Producer Murad Khetani, who has bankrolled many projects including Kabir Singh, has acquired rights to the South Korean cult classic Miracle in Cell No. 7 which originally stars actors Ryu Seung-ryong, Kal So-won and Park Shin-hye.According to a daily, the filmmaker recently acquired the rights and is planning to first lock a director for the Hindi remake before pitching the remake to the A-list actors.In the 2003 Korean smash hit, a mentally challenged man wrongfully imprisoned for rape & murder befriends the hardened inmates of his maximum-security prison, who band together to help him see his daughter. The film was based on a real-life incident that occurred in 1973.

Last year, Kabir Singh producer Murad Khetani announced his next project - the Thadam remake - amid huge fanfare. The film that was supposed to star Sidharth Malhotra and Mrunal Thakur in the lead and go on floors in November went through major changes. Sidharth expressed his reservations on the new screenplay and politely opted out of the film. This happened earlier this year and the film went in a limbo.Now, there's movement on the same and the makers have now locked another star to play the lead. The source states, "Aditya Roy Kapur has been locked in to play the hero now. It's an action packed film which will have in double roles. This will also be Aditya's first double role ever. When Sid opted out, they were on the lookout for a good looking hero who's fantastic with action. Apart from Adi, Mrunal remains part of the cast."Adi is currently finishing his other film with Ahmed Khan. "When he was approached for Thadam, he met the team and loved the script. He loved the duality of the characters. He has given them dates to begin the film sometime this year, after he wraps work on Om." Guess Sid's loss has now become his friend Adi's gain. But that's how the cookie crumbles in the industry.

It won't be wrong to say that a lot of credit for what Kiara Advani has achieved in the last two years goes to Kabir Singh. It was producer Murad Khetani who gave Kiara the big film that completely catapulted her into the big league. Not just that, right after Kabir Singh, she was also signed on as the lead for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, under the same banner.Now, she was on the verge of signing a third film with the same team. A source tells us, "It's a woman centric film titled Apurva which traces the journey of the female lead's life in a day. It's an adrenaline pumping thriller which the makers wanted Kiara to shoulder. It's a small budgeted concept oriented project and they took the film to Kiara because she is anyway the in-house favourite."But we hear, Kiara has rejected the offer. "Kiara and her team heard the story and although they liked it, they felt it was a major risk for her at this point. She is the face of many big projects and her career has taken off to a different level now, so her team advised her against doing a smaller film like Apurva. Apart from that, she also wants to do only one woman centric film in a limited time frame and she's already signed Karram Kurram under Ashutosh Gowariker's production. They didn't want to over burden themselves with another one." While she is also in news for signing Shankar's next opposite Ranveer Singh now, Murad Khetani is still taking his film to other heroines.