Before Ajay Devgn’s Chanakya, Neeraj Pandey to wrap up Hotstar Specials’ Special OPS 2

By: Mohnish Singh

It has been quite a long time since renowned Hindi filmmaker Neeraj Pandey announced a film with superstar Ajay Devgn, titled Chanakya. While fans got really excited to know about the maiden collaboration between the duo, time flew but the project never took off the ground.

If reports are to be believed, Chanakya will take some more time before hitting the shooting floor as Pandey is planning to wrap up the second season of his critically acclaimed show, Special OPS (2020) before commencing work on the film. Starring Kay Kay Menon and Karan Tacker in prominent roles, Special OPS premiered earlier this year on Hotstar Specials and turned out to be an instant hit among viewers.

A leading entertainment portal reports that Neeraj Pandey is set to kick-off shooting for the next season with Kay Kay Menon returning as RAW chief, Himmat Singh. “The character demanded a franchise as he can face bigger challenges in the intelligence world with every passing season. Through the lockdown, Neeraj along with his writing partner and co-director, Shivam Nair, developed and locked a script for season two, and is now all set to start shooting for it within the next two months,” a source close to the development divulges.

The source goes on to add that the second season will start streaming in the last quarter of 2021. “Neeraj is planning to shoot it extensively in India and abroad. He would finish the show by June and plans to lock the final edit by August, to bring it on-air in the last quarter of the year. It’s yet another thriller tale set around the secret agencies of India. It’s a space that Neeraj is most fascinated about and given the amount of research he has done around how the agency functions, he is eager to bring different tales to the spectacle,” adds the source.

As far as his film Chanakya is concerned, the filmmaker is planning to start it at the beginning of 2022. The source concludes by saying, “It is a prep heavy film to be shot on a certain scale and both Neeraj and Ajay decided to take it on floors towards early 2022 expecting the on-ground scenario to be back to normal. Before Chanakya, even Ajay will wrap up his prior commitments and then allot bulk dates to Neeraj. The two will revisit the exact dates of the Chanakya shoot around June/July this year.”