Murtuza Iqbal
Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra starring Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, and Ranbir Kapoor has been in the making for more than two years. The film was slated to release last year but was postponed to Summer 2020, and then earlier this year it was announced that the film will release in December 2020. However, once again due to the pandemic the movie has been postponed.
Now, according to a report in Bollywood Hungama, Fox Star Studios, who is co-producing the film with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, has asked Ayan Mukerji to cut short the runtime of the movie.
A source told the entertainment portal, “Brahmastra is undoubtedly the costliest Hindi film till date and to make sure the returns are on the point, the stakeholders are leaving no stone unturned. While the bound screenplay of Brahmastra and the rough first cut had a run time closer to the 3-hour mark, the studio suggested the team to cut it down by at least 30 minutes keeping in mind the changing consumption pattern of the audiences, thereby making the film a memorable experience.”
Well, a few days of the shoot is still left and the makers are planning to resume it next month. The source stated, “It’s more of a song and some talkie scenes which are to be shot in the final schedule of approximately 10 days. The studio is looking to bring Brahmastra during the summer 2021 weekend and is in no mood to delay it any further. The rough cut is ready with just some visual effect work pending now, which is going on in full swing. The sequences that remain to be shot won’t require too much of post-production, thereby enabling the team to lock the final edit quickly after the wrap and release the film.”
Brahmastra also stars Nagarjuna, Mouni Roy, and Gurfateh Pirzada. Shah Rukh Khan will be seen in a cameo in the movie.
Migrants in a dinghy crossing the English Channel
Sunder Katwala