Akshay Kumar to reunite with Mission Mangal director Jagan Shakti for Hindi remake of Vijay's Kaththi

Akshay Kumar, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming space film Mission Mangal, has already signed his next project with the director of the film, Jagan Shakti. Titled Ikka, the film is supposed to be the long-delayed Hindi remake of the 2014 Tamil movie Kaththi, which starred Vijay and Samantha Akkineni as the lead pair, reports Mumbai Mirror. Kaththi was directed by AR Murugadoss, who has previously worked with Akshay in Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. Jagan, who has earlier worked as an assistant director on films like Cheeni Kum, Paa, English Vinglish, Thuppakki and Holiday, was set to make his directorial debut with the official Hindi remake of Kaththi. [caption id=“attachment_7079161” align=“alignnone” width=“750”] Akshay Kumar; Vijay in the 2014 Tamil hit, Kaththi | Twitter[/caption] However, Jagan reveals that the remake was put on the backburner after he came across the story of Mission Mangal. However, he confirms that Ikka will soon go on floors. “It will resonate with the underprivileged section of the society. With my second directorial, I want to explore action which is presented in a sleek way,” he further adds in the Mirror report. Earlier this week, Akshay had announced Farhad Samji’s directorial  Bachchan Pandey , slated for a Christmas 2020 release_,_ with the first-look poster of the film. Directed by Jagan and produced by Cape of Good Films and Fox Star Studios, Mission Mangal also stars Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Nithya Menen, and Kirti Kulhari with Akshay Kumar, HG Dattatreya, and Sharman Joshi. The film is a retelling of India’s first-ever mission to Mars. Apart from Mission Mangal, Akshay has several other projects in the pipeline. He has reunited with Farhad Samji on  Housefull 4 , slated for a Diwali release. He will also feature in Karan Johar’s romantic-comedy  Good News , where he will share screen space with Kareena Kapoor Khan, Diljit Dosanjh, and Kiara Advani as well as Rohit Shetty’s  _Sooryavanshi_ , opposite Katrina Kaif. It will see Katrina reunite with Akshay after a  decade-long gap . He will also star in Raghava Lawrence’s horror-comedy  _Laxmmi Bomb_,  the Hindi remake of the 2011 Tamil film Muni 2: Kanchana.  Mission Mangal is slated to release on Independence Day, along with John Abraham’s _Batla House_ .