Bollywood Stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone To Collaborate On 'The Intern' Remake

Bollywood star Deepika Padukone has announced that she will work with veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan on the Hindi remake of "The Intern."

The 35-year-old actress took to Instagram on Monday to share the first poster of the upcoming comedy-drama, which is slated to release in summer next year.

"What an absolute honour to be collaborating with one of my most special co-star again!" Padukone captioned. "Welcoming @amitabhbachchan to the Indian adaptation of #TheIntern."

The movie is produced by Warner Bros. Pictures (India), KA Productions and Athena. The Indian adaptation of "The Intern" is helmed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma.

This is not the first time Padukone and the 78-year-old actor have collaborated on a project. They portrayed father and daughter on screen for the movie "Piku," which was released in 2015. The movie also featured late Indian actor Irrfan Khan, who worked in Hollywood movies such as "Life of Pi," "Jurassic World" and "Slumdog Millionaire."

Bachchan made his Hollywood debut in 2013 with a cameo role in the romantic drama "The Great Gatsby." The actor shared screen space with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire.

The trend of remakes seems to continue in Bollywood. Another Indian actor Salman Khan announced in March that his upcoming movie "Radhe" will release on May 13, which is a remake of the South Korean movie "Veteran."

In the Hindi remake of "The Intern", Bachchan will portray Robert De Niro's role – who played Ben in the original movie – while Padukone will feature Anne Hathaway's role.

Interestingly, Bachchan wasn't the first choice for Ben's character. It was supposed to be portrayed by another Indian actor, Rishi Kapoor, before his sudden death in April 2020.

The story of the comedy-drama revolves around a workaholic CEO, who becomes friends with a 70-year-old widower. The original movie was released in 2005 and earned $195 million globally.

The filming of the Indian version will start in November. The screenplay of the movie is penned by Mitesh Shah and Akshat Ghildial. Padukone's debut Hollywood release was "XXX: Return of Xander Cage" (2017) starring Vin Diesel.

Since then, she had worked in Indian movies such as "Padmaavat" and "Chhapaak." She is currently filming two highly anticipated movies, "Pathan" with actor Shah Rukh Khan and "83" with her husband, Ranveer Singh.