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Akshay no longer a Khiladi?
Roshmila Bhattacharya,Mumbai Mirror | Dec 4, 2013, 08.18 AM IST

Twenty-one years after his brother Ganesh Jain flagged off the Khiladi franchise that put Akshay Kumar on the road to stardom, Ratan Jain is ready to start Khiladi 2. The film will be directed by Abbas-Mustan who had helmed the ’92 film as well. In the interim there have been six Khiladi films, including Main Khiladi Tu Anari in ’94 produced by another Jain brother, Champak.

But the rest of the films in the franchise-Sabse Bada Khiladi (’95), Khiladiyon Ka Khildai (’96), Mr & Mrs Khialdi (’97), International Khiladi (’99), Khiladi 420 (2000) and Khiladi 786 (2012)-were not produced by the Jains.

“Anyone could borrow the title Khiladi, add a couple of words to it, get the title cleared and come up with a Khiladi film. We didn’t object to them, but we had nothing to do with those films,” says Ratan who has just locked the script of Khiladi 2.

“We will now start on the casting, and the pre-production will take another six months. The film should roll sometime next year,” he says.

Will Akshay Kumar who has acted in all the eight films and earned the tag of Khiladi Kumar, be a part of this one too? “We might approach him too, but the story is about a younger boy so we could spring a surprise,” says Ratan evasively, admitting that he has a couple of younger actors in mind for Khiladi 2 but refuses to divulge any names till he gets a confirmation. All he says is, “It will be an actionpacked thriller.”