Siddharth Malhotra to shed his boyish romantic avatar for a darker role

His Bollywood debut in Karan Johar’s directorial venture titled Student of the Year pushed newcomer Siddharth Malhotra in the spotlight. The 28-year-old actor starred alongside debutants Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt and played the role of a middle-class student at a prestigious educational institute presided over by a gay and eccentric dean. The film was a blockbuster, just like Karan’s previous films and released on the 19th of October, 2012.

After a dream debut, Siddharth Malhotra has bagged a couple of more films and seems to be on a roll, being tagged as one of Bollywood’s most sought after newcomers. Besides his next film, Hasee Toh Phasee, Siddharth has bagged yet another film. While Hasee Toh Phasee is a joint production by Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap with Parineeti Chopra playing the female lead, Siddharth Malhotra will be seen in a darker role in The Villain, an Ekta Kapoor production.

Speaking about the film, Siddharth recently tweeted, "Really excited about my new project with Balaji... Will be fun walking the dark side." Girish Johar, head of acquisition and distribution, Balaji Motion Pictures, confirmed The Villain in which Siddharth will don an angry-young-man role. The film is supposedly set in Mumbai and could very well be directed by filmmaker Mohit Suri. There has been no news who will grace the female-lead role.

Stay tuned for more on this upcoming flick!

Karan Johar’s protégé, Varun Dhawan, rumored to have signed Ekta Kapoor’s next!

Filmmaker Karan Johar and producer Ekta Kapoor have shared a long-standing friendship. The two have recently been in the news after plans for their next film together hit airwaves. Ekta Kapoor has now taken interest in Karan’s protégé Varun Dhawan who made his debut with the Dharma Productions chief’s fifth directorial venture, Student of the Year. Varun made his debut with two more promising newcomers, Siddharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt in the lead. The son of veteran filmmaker David Dhawan, Varun is now on his way to a long and fulfilling career, after a dream launch in Karan’s glamorous campus romance.

As per rumors, Varun Dhawan has been signed by Ekta Kapoor to star in a big-budget south Indian film remake. The producer has spent nearly Rs. 2 crore to purchase the rights to this Telugu film. according to a report in a reputed daily, “Except for Ekta and her core team, no one knows what film this is. Varun has been confirmed for this film, which is apparently Ekta’s most ambitious project till date. It’s going to be a classy romantic comedy. She wants it to be like a modern-day Himmatwala (1983), but the treatment will be plush: on the lines of The Wedding Crashers (2005). The film will go on the floors by mid-year.”

And that’s not all. Ekta Kapoor will also surprise the audiences with her choice of the leading lady and director. Also, director-producer Karan Johar seems to have no qualms when it comes to his mentees signing up with production houses away from home.