Salman Khan in talks with Siddharth Malhotra for a film under his production banner

Two months ago, filmmaker Karan Johar announced a collaboration with Salman Khan Films for a huge project starring Akshay Kumar slated for a 2018 release. Kumar told Firstpost that he has never seen such an instance in the Hindi film industry that a superstar, in Khan, is casting another superstar for his production.

But Khan has had a great history of encouraging talent and even introducing new talent in the industry. He has been instrumental in the success of various new breed superstars like Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor, Tiger Shroff, Athiya Shetty, Sooraj Pancholi, Pulkit Samrat and now hopefully, Siddharth Malhotra (even though he doesn’t really need an introduction).

The Quint reports that Khan is in talks with Malhotra and wants to sign him for his production that will be inspired from a real life incident. However, it will not be a biopic, though the genre is gaining traction in the industry, particularly after the success of films like Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal, Neeraj Pandey’s MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Ram Madhvani’s Neerja and Omung Kumar’s Sarbjit last year.

Khan has always praised Malhotra in the past. According to the report by The Quint, he called Malhotra a ‘diamond’ after watching the younger actor in Mohit Suri’s 2014 revenge drama Ek Villain.

The Indian Express reports that Khan provided pointed fitness tips to Malhotra and Kumar while they were training for their roles of professional boxers in Karan Malhotra’s 2015 family drama Brothers. Malhotra recalled how Khan was taken aback to see Malhotra shed so many kilos to sport the lean look in Shakun Batra’s 2016 family drama Kapoor and Sons.

Malhotra has recently wrapped up the shooting of Raj and D.K.’s Reloaded, in which he has collaborated with filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala and actor Jacqueline Fernandez, the same combination which delivered the 2014 blockbuster Kick with Khan. Now, Malhotra has begun shooting for Abhay Chopra’s directorial debut Ittefaq opposite Sonakshi Sinha.