London shoot of Dharma Productions’ Dostana 2 cancelled

The latest victim to the ongoing Coronavirus lockdown is Dharma Productions’ much-awaited film Dostana 2, starring Janhvi Kapoor, Kartik Aaryan and debutant Lakshya in principal roles. Director Collin D’Cunha, who is making his directorial debut with the movie, was planning to shoot some crucial scenes in London but the Coronavirus pandemic has led to a major reshuffle in the shooting schedule of the film.

If fresh reports are anything to go by, the scenes which were earlier scheduled to be shot in London will now be filmed in India only. The writing team has, in fact, rewritten this part of the script keeping in mind the new location.

“London had become one of the most popular destinations for film shoots for Bollywood filmmakers as the government offers a huge rebate. In fact, in the first 2 ½ months of 2020, as many as 5 films were shot there were released – Bhangra Paa Le, Street Dancer, Jawaani Jaaneman, Happy Hardy And Heer and Angrezi Medium. But now UK is one of the countries with the maximum COVID-19 cases. Producers will be wary of going there and also actors would prefer to stay away from Europe and America till the situational gets better. As a result, one can expect most of the shoots to happen in India itself,” a source close to the development informs a publication.

Dostana 2, as the title aptly suggests, is a sequel to Dharma Productions’ superhit film Dostana (2008), originally starring Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan in prominent roles.

The hugely anticipated film is expected to arrive in cinemas in the second half of the year.