The shooting of Anees Bazmee‘s ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2′ was halted in March 2020 owing to the Covid-19 lockdown. Tabu, Kartik Aaryan, and Kiara Advani–the lead stars of the film–were supposed to resume work on it from October but it was pushed to December. And later, when the film didn’t go back on floors till January 2021, it was speculated that it was Tabu who was being difficult and not giving dates. A report or two also claimed that the actress had wanted to walk out from the project.

Anees is definitely not amused when asked about it. Insisting that he’s going to go back on the sets by the end of February, he told ETimes, “I fail to understand why Tabu was targeted for the shoot of ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ not being in progress? It’s still pandemic time and it is not easy to predict how long it will take even now to complete the film. Only if all goes well, we should be done by April-May. We are likely to shoot almost continuously.”

Clearing the air about the rumours doing the rounds, he added, “Tabu had not refused to shoot. In fact, I myself was not in Mumbai for 10 months after Covid-19 broke out. I had gone away to my farmhouse in Lonavala with my family.”

The director also said that he has met Tabu, Kartik, Kiara, and the other members of the ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ team after coming back from Lonavala recently and they have confirmed with him that they will be available for the film’s shoot from the fourth week of February. “We shall take all the precautions that need to be taken,” Anees asserted.

If not Tabu, were Kartik or Kiara delaying the resumption of the shoot, we prod. “No there was nothing like that. In fact, some even wrote that the shoot of ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ will not happen for at least six months from now and a few others went to the extent of saying that the film was being shelved. I didn’t know how I could tell them to not circulate wrong news; but good that I am speaking now. Of course, I was very annoyed about so much wrong news but I hope that I have now set the record straight,” he said, revealing that he utilised the downtime at his farmhouse very fruitfully. “I completed writing a love story, which could well be my next film after ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2′”.

A source informed ETimes that Team ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ will first start shooting at an outstation location, after which a portion of the film will be shot in Mumbai. The sequel to the 2007 film is being produced by T-Series, Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde, and also stars Rajpal Yadav and Govind Namdev in important roles.