Media reports have been doing the rounds suggesting that Bollywood Director Karan Johar’s much anticipated new period drama ‘Takht’, starring multiple superstars such as Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal has been shelved. The period drama was scheduled for a 2020 release but was put on hold due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Rumours have it that the movie has been deferred indefinitely.
A source known to the development was quoted by a media house as saying that the makers of the movie have decided to do away with the movie after being unable to sort out ‘creative differences’. There were also rumours that it was shelved following outrage on social media.
“Karan Johar’s ambitious project Takht has been shelved permanently. It was put on hold due to COVID-19 earlier. However, the team developing it have been having a hard time sort their creative differences and be on the same page”, the source was quoted as saying.
Karan Johar denies humour of ‘Takht’ being shelved
The film director Karan Johar has, however, refuted the reports. Speaking to SpotboyE, Johar said: “Takht is not shelved. It’s just delayed”.
The period drama titled Takht was announced by Karan Johar in the year 2018. Takht is a historical drama that narrates the story of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and his brother Dara Shikoh, and their fight for the throne. The movie, which is by far Karan Johar’s most expensive project, has been in the line of fire since last year after its Hinduphobic Islamist writer Hussain Haidry had spewed venom against Hindus on Twitter.
Karan Johar’s movie receives backlash for its Islamist writer
Hussain had in February last year, taken to the micro-blogging site to express his hatred towards Hindus as he repeatedly spread Hinduphobic bile on social media. Several times earlier, Haidry, a quintessential Islamist, has given words to his bigoted thoughts on Twitter.
Irate over Haidry’s blatant Hinduphobic and hateful tweets, netizens had demanded strict action against the Takht writer. The hashtag #BoycottTakht began trending on Twitter with netizens slamming Haidry for allegedly defaming Hindus in his tweets.
Soon after the backlash, Hussain Haidry had also deactivated his Twitter account.
Karan Johar not new to controversies
Karan Johar, too, has been in the line of fire after the untimely death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. He has been criticised for fostering the culture of nepotism and favouritism in Bollywood. He had also come into the radar after his name emerged in the Bollywood drug probe after he shared a party video featuring Bollywood celebrities including Deepika Padukone, Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan, Ranbir Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, and Malaika Arora among others.
