Milan Talkies

Milan Talkies is an upcoming 2014 drama Hindi film directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia and produced by Ekta Kapoor. The film features actors Ayushmann Khurrana and Esha Gupta in the lead role.^[1] As a director, it is Tigmanshu Dhulia's first collaboration with Balaji Motion Pictures.^[2] The film is scheduled to release on 25 December 2014 but the exact date has yet to be finalised.

Plot

Milan Talkies is a love story set in the modern days and will also depict the culture of movie duplication piracy in a quirky and funny manner.^[3] The story is about two lovers who find it difficult to express their love for each other. It revolves around a small town cinema hall where a boy from Uttar Pradesh (Ayushmann Khurrana) not only works, but also moonlights as a film pirate by shooting illegal videos of the films that are being screened there. ^[4]

Cast

• Ayushmann Khurrana
• Esha Gupta

Production

Development

Ekta Kapoor's production house Balaji Motion Pictures will be financing this film, which is going to be the eighth film of Tigmanshu Dhulia as a film director. Though any name was not mentioned, actor Prateik Babbar said that Milan Talkies was earlier supposed to be made by another production house.^[5]

Casting

Till 2012, only Imran Khan was finalised to be doing a role in Milan Talkies, the selection of the rest of the cast was yet in progress. Imran had signed this movie very early. He had to reject the offer of 2 States due to clash of dates with Milan Talkies.^[6] He would be cast as a small town movie hall employee, who moonlights as a film pirate by shooting illegal videos of the films that are being screened there.^[7] There were reports that actress Sonakshi Sinha was chosen to do the female lead. But she gave it up as she was not comfortable with the character and its looks. Priyanka Chopra later signed for the film despite date problems.^[8] Actor Prateik Babbar was also supposed to do this film but he even opted out.^[5] Reports were there that Prateik demanded too much for the film.^[9] On August 20, 2013, Shahid Kapoor was announced as the new male lead of the film followed by Amrita Puri and Esha Gupta as the main heroine; thus replacing Imran Khan and Priyanka Chopra.^[10]

It was later known that Shahid Kapoor too opted out of the film siting issues on the casting of female lead. After shifting his dates he finally denied for the film.

Filming

Filming of Milan Talkies is scheduled to start from September 10, 2013. It was a bit delayed due to problems of the leading cast members regarding the dates^[3] Lucknow, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was chosen to be one of the shooting locations.^[7]

References

Milan Talkies Photo Shoot Photos