No Hrithik or Abhishek for ‘Agneepath’ remake

Mumbai, Aug 26 2009 (IANS) There have been speculations about who will play the male lead in the remake of the 1990 hit “Agneepath”. While the names of Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan popped up, filmmaker Karan Johar clarifies that no one has been finalised to play the part Amitabh Bachchan immortalised in the original.

“I haven’t made any statement whatsoever around the man who would eventually be playing the role of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan that was made iconic by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. All I have said is that, yes, we are going ahead with a remake of ‘Agneepath’ and that’s about it,” Johar told IANS.

Whether it is Hrithik, Abhishek or someone else, Johar must be having a wish list?

“Well, the wish list is to get the screenplay right. For the moment nothing else is more important than that,” he said.

Even though the film is being produced under the banner of Dharma Productions, Johar won’t be going behind the camera for the movie.

“True, I would be stepping aside and the film would be directed by Karan Malhotra, who has assisted me on ‘My Name Is Khan’. That’s the only thing which has been finalised… everything else you hear is mere speculation. We will finalise the cast once the script is locked. Currently, it is still in the process of being written,” he added.

Malhotra is not really a novice when it comes to filmmaking. He has earlier worked as an assistant director with Ashutosh Gowariker on “Jodhaa Akbar”, Farah Khan on “Main Hoon Na”, Farhan Akhtar on “Lakshya” and Raj Kumar Santoshi “Lajja and Pukar” amongst others.

Since it is close to two decades since the release of “Agneepath”, would the remake have a different milieu to it?