Has Ranbir Kapoor’s Super-Hero Film Been Shelved?

It was meant to be the mother of all special effects films. Dragon was going to be producer Karan Johar and director Ayan Mukerjee’s answer to Hollywood’s big-ticket super-hero films.

And its  leading man Ranbir Kapoor was so excited about for many reasons. Every star worth anything wants to play a super-hero at least once in his career.And when Ranbir’s best friend decides to write and direct one, it has got to be super-special.

Or so it seemed. Until the star-director dost-pair met the internationally celebrated  Israeli martial arts specialistIdo Portal  in London for the action  scenes in Dragon.

Apparently the cost quoted for worldclass special effects(which Ayan and Ranbir were aiming for) sent them staggering back to India .

“This was like back to Square One  for the team. Producer Karan Johar has taken  the film back to the drawing board to  figure out the budget vis-à-vis international technicians.Also, the fact that the Indian super-hero films like The Flying Jatt(with Tiger Shroff) has bombed, has tilted the scales towards a no-go for Dragon.” Says a source close to Karan Johar.

At the moment the official status  for Dragon is “delayed”. It was meant to start in July. Then it went to the  end of the year. Now…no one knows! Which is  a pity for both Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt who have been paired together  for the first time in Dragon. Ranbir has only Jagga Jasoos on hand . Only God and UTV can tell us what will happen with that beleaguered project.

Alia Bhatt has also not signed any other new film after the spectacular success of Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya ,except Dragon which was expected to take  a large  chunk of her time this year.

The  film was also going to bring Ranbir and Amitabh Bachchan together for the first time. Mr Bachchan has quite often expressed  a wish to work with Ranbir.

I guess his wish will have to wait.