Sahir Ludhianvi’s biopic which has been doing the rounds since nearly 8 years is making news again. We last knew that Sanjay Leela Bhansali was toying with the idea of making it, with Abhishek Bachchan/ Irrfan Khan in the lead. Rumour has it that it is now on the tables of Shah Rukh Khan‘s Red Chillies Entertainment. It is however not yet known whether Shah Rukh will play the legendary lyricist but we wouldn’t be surprised if he does so.

For those who’ve come in late- Jasmeet Reen, the writer-director of the film on Ludhianvi’s life, has struggled a lot to put this project together. Before Bhansali, Ashi Dua (of ‘Ghost Stories’ and ‘Kaalakaandi’) was supposed to produce it. Farhan Akhtar, Irrfan Khan and Abhishek Bachchan were supposed to play Ludhianvi- each at different points of time. On the other hand, the names of Priyanka Chopra, Kareena Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu had cropped up to play Amrita Pritam, who had a strong affection for Ludhianvi. It will be interesting to see if SRK will indeed come on board.

This evening around 6 pm, we managed to reach Jasmeet after repeated attempts. She heard us asking her to quote whether Shah Rukh Khan had shown interest in the Ludhianvi biopic. Jasmeet simply said, “I’ll call you back. I am busy in a meeting for now.” Until the time of going online, which saw us giving four hours for Jasmeet to revert, she hadn’t called back. Post that- we persevered in our efforts to make Jasmeet talk but she chose to not respond to even our text messages.

March 8, 2021, will mark the 100th birth anniversary of Ludhianvi.