At 68, Big B gears up for hardcore action

Four years after Family — Ties Of Blood, Amitabh Bachchan returns to the underworld territory once again. Titled Budda, the movie is being helmed by Puri Jagannadh, whose Pokiri inspired Salman Khan’s Wanted.

Four years after

HT Image

Family — Ties Of Blood

, Amitabh Bachchan returns to the underworld territory once again. This time, his AB Corp will be producing the film, unlike the Rajkumar Santoshi-directed film, which was co-produced by Keshu Ramsay. Titled

Budda

, the movie is being helmed by Puri Jagannadh, whose

Pokiri

inspired Salman Khan’s

Wanted

.

A source associated with the film reveals, “As an underworld don, Amitji plays a very angry old man… A character like the one he played years ago in

Aakhri Raasta

. However, this time his character is someone who flares up at the slightest provocation.

“Imagine Amitji doing the kind of action that Salman did in

Wanted

. That’s the kind of stunts he will be doing in

Budda

,” he says, adding it was Puri’s idea to feature the actor in the role that will bring back memories of the fight sequences from his old superhits.

Abhishek not signed

As opposed to some other films of the genre being reportedly inspired by real people and incidents,

Budda

is Puri’s original script centered around two characters, on either side of the law.

Interestingly, Abhishek Bachchan won’t be acting in this home-production, despite AB Corp’s last venture with the father-son duo,

Paa

, having done well at the box-office and garnering critical acclaim for Big B’s performance as Auro.

Instead, Sonu Sood, who was seen in Puri’s last Telugu movie,

Ek Niranjan

, has been signed up for the second lead. “While Amitji plays the don, the other character is a police officer played by Sonu and the story line revolves around these two characters,” informs our source.

RGV involved

Besides, the actor and the director’s common filmmaker friend Ram Gopal Varma will also be involved in the movie as the creative producer. Scheduled to start shooting later this October, the film will be extensively shot in Mumbai.

While Puri was unavailable for comment, Wing Commander Ramesh Pulapaka, CEO of AB Corp, said he was busy in a meeting.