Deepika Padukone, Irrfan Khan to reunite post Piku for Vishal Bhardwaj's crime drama?

Deepika Padukone seems to have signed her first Hindi film post DJ Caruso’s action entertainer xXx: The Return of Xander Cage. While she is currently shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmavati, she has also signed the dotted line on a Vishal Bhardwaj production.

The yet-untitled film will explore the life of the notorious female don Rahima Khan aka Sapna Didi who is known for almost killing Dawood Ibrahim.

DNA reports that Rahima had set up Ibrahim’s execution during a cricket match in Sharjah to avenge her husband’s murder. However, Ibrahim managed to see through the plan and got her killed a few days before the match.

The film is reportedly based on Hussain Zaidi’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai.  Bollywood Life reports that Irrfan Khan is also a part of the film as he will play a local gangster.

This is reminiscent of Irrfan’s first film with Bhardwaj - the 2003 film crime drama Maqbool.

This film will mark Bhardwaj’s fifth collaboration with Irrfan following Maqbool, the 2011 dark thriller Saat Khoon Maaf, the 2014 crime drama Haider and the 2015 crime drama Talvar in which Bhardwaj was a writer. Also, this will be Padukone’s second collaboration with Irrfan after Shoojit Sircar’s 2015 slice of life drama Piku.

However, this will be the first time Padukone will appear in a Bhardwaj film.

While the filmmaker has written the script, it will be directed by his longtime collaborator Honey Trehan.

Bhardwaj also expressed his excitement of collaborating with Padukone. “Deepika has been asking me to write a script for her for a long time. She has heard this script and loved it. We are in an advance stage of discussion with her,” he said to DNA.