Bollywood flies South

While Shah Rukh Khan seems to be flying South for the winter, many Bollywood stars are looking at good regional directors to helm their films rather than just look at the usual Bollywood suspects to captain their ships.

On SRK’s birthday, the actor was spotted with director Atlee and his wife Priya. While Atlee has acknowledged that he was in talks with the actor to work in his films, no official announcement has been made. But Atlee’s presence with SRK has set alarm bells ringing, and the south director’s fans are going berserk even just at the thought of him working with King Khan. Incidentally, SRK was also spotted in a picture with Tamil director Vetrimaran, but sources close to the Asuran director denied that the two were planning something together.

“No, there is nothing coming up on the cards with Vetri sir. It is just a casual picture,” sources inform.

Other actors who are and will be working with South directors now include Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, and Sanjay Dutt among others. Ranveer Singh is working with a Gujarati director in his next film Jayeshbhai Jordaar. Kartik Aaryan worked with a Marathi director Laxman Utekar in Luka Chhupi. Rajkummar Rao recently starred in Made In China made by National Award-winning Gujarati director Mikhil Musale.

With so many filmmakers wanting to work with Shah Rukh Khan, who remains unsigned as an actor in a full-fledged role for two years — he signed Zero in 2018 and did the voice over for Mufasa in The Lion King — may just be looking south to give a boost to his career in what he wants to be a comeback.