Bombay Talkies team Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar, Zoya reunite for another film

Four years after uniting for Bombay Talkies, the four prolific filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee are gearing up to release yet another anthology of four 30-minute films each.

DNA reports that this untitled project is not a sequel to Bombay Talkies, as speculated initially. While Bombay Talkies was projected as an ode to Hindi cinema for the completion of 100 years, the impending project will also have a common underlying theme - love and lust.

Johar’s short in Bombay Takies, titled Ajeeb Dastaan Hai Yeh, was based on the same theme as it revolved around a gay man masking his sexuality by marrying a straight woman. Johar claimed that he followed in the footsteps of his fellow filmmakers in terms of syntax in order to churn out a niche film, a departure from his signature hardcore commercial style. Now, it seems like tables have turned as the other three directors have taken a page out of Johar’s book given that he directed a similar romantic drama in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil last year.

Mumbai Mirror reports that Roni Screwvala and Ashi Dua will produce the upcoming project. All four directors are busy working on their scripts and are likely to shoot their respective shots sometime this year since the film is slated to release in 2018.

The same report suggests that Akhtar is in talks with Neil Bhoopalam and Bhumi Pednekar to play important parts in her short film. The filmmaker is currently also working on the pre-production of her next feature film , Gully Boys featuring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt.

On the other hand, there is no official word on the future directorials of either Johar, Banerjee or Kashyap as they are busy managing their respective production houses and other commitments.

Yet another anthology, Shor Se Shuruaat that released last year, saw eight seasoned filmmakers mentor eight budding ones in their respective shorts with ’noise’ as the common theme. However, the film did not impress the audience as much as Bombay Talkies and thus, tanked at the box office.