Farhan Akhtar’s never-ending road of return to direction: Jee Le Zaraa delays, Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh quitting Don 3

At the time Jee Le Zaraa was announced, two of Alia’s films had gotten shelved, so her calendar had cleared up. But if her film with Salman Khan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Inshallah, didn’t pan out because of the lead actor and the director’s creative differences, she didn’t want to lose out on the opportunity to star in another one of Bhansali’s directorials — Gangubai Kathiawadi.

Similarly, after Karan Johar’s ambitious period drama Takht got shelved owing to the pandemic, he decided to cast its lead actors — Alia and Ranveer Singh — in a family comedy instead. So, Alia got busy with filming Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani (2023). She was already onboard another ambitious Dharma Productions project — Ayan Mukerji’s supernatural drama Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva, which had faced multiple delays in shoots because of logistical issues.

The little pockets of time Alia got between these projects weren’t sufficient to shoot an expansive road movie like Jee Le Zaraa, especially when dates of the other two leads had to be taken into account as well. So, she utilized that time to kickstart her business Ed-a-Mamma and launched her production house Eternal Sunshine Productions with Jasmeet K Reen’s 2022 black comedy Darlings.

Alia also used the interstices to shoot for SS Rajamouli’s 2022 blockbuster Telugu action fantasy epic RRR and her Hollywood debut, Tom Harper’s 2023 Netflix spy thriller Heart of Stone. Once Alia returned to work post motherhood, Jee Le Zaraa was still not on track. So, she went on to do Vasan Bala’s 2024 escape thriller Jigra, and is currently juggling between Shiv Rawail’s spy thriller Alpha and Bhansali’s period romance Love & War, which have also faced a number of production delays.

Meanwhile, Priyanka Chopra had freed up her 2022 dates for Jee Le Zaraa, but owing to Alia’s unavailability, she went on to sign a string of Hollywood projects instead — Love Again (2023), Russo Brothers’ spy show Citadel (2023), Heads of State alongside John Cena and Idris Elba last year, and the upcoming action thriller The Bluff. Currently, she’s juggling between Los Angeles and Hyderabad to film Judgement Day and Rajamouli’s Telugu time-travel epic Varanasi, slated to release in cinemas in April next year.

Katrina Kaif was the least occupied of the lot, having shot only Manish Sharma’s spy thriller Tiger 3 (2023) and Sriram Raghavan’s black comedy Merry Christmas (2024) in the past five years. She’s otherwise been busy building her super successful venture Kay Beauty. Another roadblock (pun intended) for Jee Le Zaraa has been casting male actors opposite the three female leads, given the male ego issue of not letting their female co-stars do the heavy lifting.

Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, and Katrina Kaif were supposed to star in Jee Le Zaraa.

Don 3

Farhan, who had already completed even the location recce for his road movie, realized in early 2023 that Jee Le Zaraa would take a while to materialize given the circumstances. So, he diverted his energies into writing and developing Don 3, the long-awaited threequel in the popular Don franchise. However, that coincided with Shah Rukh Khan’s return to superstardom in a new avatar with Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan and Atlee’s Jawan in 2023.

Shah Rukh Khan in Don 2.

So, the actor, who played the titular role in the first two instalments of the Don franchise, turned down the threequel. He instead opted for another Siddharth Anand action thriller, King. Shah Rukh’s exit didn’t dim Farhan’s spirit for too long as he reimagined the role as a younger Don, and cast Ranveer Singh instead. Kiara Advani was also signed as the female lead, replacing Priyanka from the first two parts.

But then came Dhurandhar. Ranveer, who’s been at the receiving end of a few of his films getting shelved, finally hit jackpot with Aditya Dhar’s period spy thriller last year. Dhurandhar went on to become the highest grossing Indian film ever at the domestic box office. That prompted Ranveer to take a second look at his career from a new perspective.

Initially, Ranveer was supposed to start filming Don 3 in early 2026 after completing the shoot of Dhurandhar. He had to lose the muscle he gained for that part to get into a lean-mean look for Don 3. But Dhar and Jio Studios deciding to split Dhurandhar into two parts didn’t help either, as Ranveer had to wait a few more months to shoot for patchwork in the same physique before he could start his weight loss journey.

Excel Entertainment, which was all set to go on floors soon, began putting pressure on Ranveer. The latest reports suggest that he’s now walked out of the film, forcing Farhan to demand a compensation of Rs 40 crore. The Producers Guild of India is acting as the mediator, trying to sort out the issues, but any progress before the release of Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge on March 19 is unlikely.

While Farhan has been keeping himself busy with his music career and his producing role along with Ritesh Sidhwani at Excel Entertainment, he said no to a lot of acting offers in the past five years because he was hoping to return to direction. He came close to playing the lead in RS Prasanna’s coming-of-age sports comedy Sitaare Zameen Par last year, before producer Aamir Khan decided to play the role himself.

Also Read — Toxic vs Dhurandhar 2: Why Yash has won in the Middle-East after record-breaking Rs 105 cr deal, Ranveer Singh film likely to be a no-show

Even Farhan’s return to acting with Razneesh Ghai’s military drama 120 Bahadur last year didn’t bear any fruits. For fans of Farhan the director, it seems like another long wait before he can return to the director’s chair. Whether it would be with Jee Le Zaraa, Don 3 or any other new project altogether, time will tell.