Five years after the success of Vidya Balan’s The Dirty Picture, Richa Chadha is all set to play Malayalam star Shakeela in an upcoming biopic. Vidya’s The Dirty Picture was loosely based on the life of Silk Smitha.
Hailing from Kerala, Shakeela was one of the biggest heroines of the 90s and she featured in several adult films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languages.
The biopic will be directed by Indrajit Lankesh, who is the brother of late journalist Gauri Lankesh. He bagged the V. Shantaram Award for Best Debutant Director for his first film, Thuntata (2001).
The biopic tells the tale of Shakeela’s entry in the film business at the age of 16 and traces her life’s journey. Shakeela’s films weren’t only dubbed in languages across India but also in Chinese, Nepalese and several other languages. Shakeela became a popular figure in the film business at a time when men dominated the industry.
Richa’s spokesperson said in a press statement, “The film is the story of Shakeela, one of the most famous actors from Malayalam cinema from the 90s who rose to a spectacular amount of fame. Her fans were spread across Asia and she earned fanfare as a woman which was unheard of, back then. The film’s script was exciting and is a great story to tell and the story will make for a great watch for the audience. The preparations will begin soon and the film should be going on floors in end April or May.”
The Shakeela biopic will go on floors this April and will release early 2019.
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