All you need to know about Pralay, Ranveer Singh’s next film after Dhurandhar: Bollywood’s first zombie apocalypse, Lokah actor’s Bollywood debut

What’s Pralay about?

Pralay is going to be a first for not only Ranveer, but also Hindi cinema at large. It’s being touted as a zombie apocalypse films. A popular genre in the West, it entails memorable movies like Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002), starring Oppenheimer’s Academy Award-winning actor Cillian Murphy; Francis Lawrence’s I Am Legend (2007), starring Will Smith; Marc Foster’s World War Z (2013), starring Brad Pitt; Yeong Sang-Ho’s Train to Busan (2016), starring Don Lee; Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead (2021) on Netflix; and the film adaptations of the video game franchise Resident Evil.

But zombies would be a new concept for Hindi cinema, just like vampires was last year with films like Dominic Arun’s Malayalam blockbuster Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra and Aditya Sarpotdar’s Thamma, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Rashmika Mandanna, which is a part of the Maddock Horror Comedy Universe. In fact, Maddock Films’ Dinesh Vijan is no stranger to zombies either since he was a co-producer on Raj & DK’s 2013 zombie comedy Go Goa Gone.

That film, starring Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Vir Das, and Anand Tiwari, was produced by Saif and Dinesh’s banner Illuminati Films. After Vijan started Maddock Films, he acquired the rights to Go Goa Gone and even announced its sequel in 2019, with the original cast set to reprise their roles. However, there’s been no development on that front since the film was paused thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

But Pralay will nonetheless be unprecedented for Hindi cinema. Unlike Go Goa Gone, set in the contemporary world where zombies just show up, Ranveer’s film will have a post-apocalyptic setting. It’ll also be set in a dystopian version of Mumbai, in which Artificial Intelligence would be used to turn the city into a decayed post-apocalyptic setting.

Who are Ranveer’s co-stars in Pralay?

There were reports doing the rounds that Alia Bhatt is being eyed as the leading lady opposite Ranveer in Pralay. Had that materialized, it would be their third team-up after two hits in Zoya Akhtar’s 2019 coming-of-age musical Gully Boy and Karan Johar’s 2023 family comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. But the source tells SCREEN that Alia’s 2026 looks quite packed, given both her films have been pushed by months — Shiv Rawail’s spy thriller Alpha and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s romantic drama Love & War.

Exit: Alia. Enter: Kalyani Priyadarshan. Daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Priyadarshan, Kalyani got her breakthrough just last year when she played the titular role in Lokah: Chapter 1, the runaway Malayalam hit produced by Dulquer Salmaan’s Wayfarer Films. Since she’s already the face of a supernatural world, she’s likely to blend seamlessly into the zombie apocalypse world of Pralay. While there’s no official word on her joining the cast of Pralay, it’s likely to be her Bollywood debut.

Pralay will also mark the theatrical debut of filmmaker Hansal Mehta’s son Jai Mehta. Having previously assisted his father on films like Shahid (2012) and Aligarh (2015), Jai came into his own by co-directing shows like Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020) on SonyLIV and Lootere (2024) on JioHotstar. The film will be co-produced by Hansal and Sameer Nair-led Applause Entertainment, who’ve also collaborated on the Scam franchise and Hansal’s upcoming historical show on Gandhi.

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Pralay timeline

The timeline of when Pralay starts and releases remains unclear. While there were plans for it to go on floors at the start of this year’s second half, the timeline would now depend on the events unfolding after the release of Dhurandhar Part 2. Ranveer has been asked to lie low till the release of the sequel. Once it does, it’ll be clearer which film he’ll do first — Pralay or Don 3. Amid reports of him walking out of the latter, a source told SCREEN that Ranveer is only busy losing Dhurandhar’s bulked up avatar before he can start the Don threequel. But Dhurandhar Part 2’s fate will determine the actor’s next steps, but Pralay definitely seems to be on the cards.