Akshay Kumar has been a busy man. After wrapping up Bell Bottom, in Scotland in August, the actor has resumed work on a period drama, Prithviraj, at a city studio. Before the year ends, he will wrap up Aanand L Rai’s love story Atrangi Re and kick off the new year with a fourth film in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Sajid Nadiadwala’s Bachchan Pandey will roll in January and continue till March. It marks the actor’s 10th collaboration with his producer-buddy.

“Akshay, along with actress Kriti Sanon, director Farhad Samji and the rest of the unit will fly to Jaisalmer in a charter for a marathon schedule of over 2 months during which they will be shooting in real locations. Last month, the production team secured all the requisite permissions and taken care of all the government guidelines and locked the shooting locations,” revealed a source. Akshay, Sajid, Kriti, and Farhad’s previous collaboration, the 2019 period-comedy Housefull 4, was also shot in the Golden City and the source added that several of that film’s crew are on board for Bachchan Pandey as well.

The entire team will be stationed at a Suryagarh Hotel together and some indoor sequences will be shot there. The film also has some elaborate action scenes and teams from across the country will be joining the crew for that shoot. Bachchan Pandey, along with Heropanti 2, will be among the first two Sajid Nadiadwala productions to flag off, and the filmmaker has formed a special team, including doctors from Mumbai, to ensure that all Covid safety protocols are enforced on the set.

“The team will undergo an extensive workshop on all SOPs issued by the government to ensure a “no-contact set” to be created. The entire cast and crew will undergo a mandatory Covid test towards December end and the crew will be quarantined for three days before the shoot. Two doctors to fly with the crew from Mumbai to Jaisalmer and will be stationed at the shooting location. Special medical rooms will be set up in Jaisalmer and each and every location will be sanitized a day prior to the shoot,” informed the source.

“Akshay is looking forward to exploring another interesting script. His get-up will be high on prosthetics which is prominent in the last poster which came out in January 2020,” shared the source, saying that the film will have an interesting ensemble cast and some acclaimed actors are expected to come on board within a fortnight. “There’s also another actress who will be a part of the film and the makers are considering two-three names; dates are being worked upon,” the source concluded.

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