‘King’: Deepika Padukone on board Shah Rukh Khan’s film with Siddharth Anand?

FILE: Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone at a press conference held for ‘Happy New Year’ in Chennai on October 03, 2014
| Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

King, Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film with Pathaan-maker Siddharth Anand, has been in the news for a few months now, especially after the Bollywood superstar confirmed the collaboration in January. Now, the latest buzz is that Deepika Padukone, a frequent collaborator of Shah Rukh and Siddharth, has been roped in to play a major character in King.

This comes after reports suggested that King stars Shah Rukh’s daughter and actor Suhana Khan in the lead, facing off against Abhishek Bachchan as the antagonist.

Interestingly, a recent report by Peepingmoon states that Deepika will play an extended cameo as Suhana’s character’s mother in a film that’s now billed as a revenge action thriller. The report further adds that King is said to be along the same lines of Bobby Deol, Karisma Kapoor’s 2000 film Bichhoo, with Shah Rukh playing an assassin who helps Suhana’s character seek vengeance.

In yet another intriguing claim, the report states that Bollywood stars Saif Ali Khan and Tabu were considered for the roles of Suhana’s parents. Apparently, even Shah Rukh’s role in the film underwent a major transition after Siddharth took over direction duties from Sujoy Ghosh; the report claims that SRK was initially set to play an extended cameo, but that the project has now grown up to become a tentpole Shah Rukh Khan movie.

If reports about Deepika’s casting in the film are true, the upcoming film would mark her sixth collaboration with Shah Rukh after Om Shanti Om, Chennai Express, Happy New Year, Pathaan and Jawan.