The latest on Anil Kapoor isn’t another Hollywood film or an international TV series. We hear that the actor has gone ahead and made a major investment by buying one of the biggest indoor film studios in the city, in Andheri East. Although Kapoor has chosen to stay mum about the deal, the people working to develop the space reveal that he’s indeed the owner. The studio has not been named yet.

A source close to Kapoor says, “In all likelihood, the first project that will go on floors in this studio will be Kapoor’s adaptation of the American series 24 (in which he himself made a guest appearance). The workers will begin erecting the set for the show next month.”

While Kapoor remained unavailable for a comment, his spokesperson said, “We’re not allowed to talk about 24 right now. Everything is being kept under wraps.” However, the insider claims that Kapoor has been going all out to make his Indian adaptation of 24 as grand as possible. “A few days ago, he hired writer-director Rensil D’Silva along with writers Bhawani Iyer and Priya Pinto to work on the screenplay. Later, he also roped in Neelabh Zaveri to write the dialogues for the show,” the source says. Incidentally, Neelabh is also writing dialogues for Kapoor’s next release, Shootout At Wadala.



Abhinay Deo (director of Delhi Belly, 2011) will be directing the show. He (Kapoor) even flew down one of the original writers of 24, Patrick Harbinson, to brainstorm with Rensil and the team. “Kapoor wants the Indian version of 24 to be on the same scale as the original,” says the insider.

In the original 24, Kapoor plays a cameo as the head of an imaginary Muslim nation. But in the Hindi series, he will play the lead role, which in the original is played by English-born Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland.