Nikhil Advani to remake Homeland for Indian audience

The director is also working on his next feature film “Baazaar”, set to go on floors this year. There were reports that he was in talks with Akshay Kumar to play the lead role but Nikhil did not divulge any details.

Meanwhile, the “Hero” director has made a short film for the “Zeal for Unity” initiative titled “Guddu Engineer”.

Nikhil says he intentionally kept the spelling of engineer wrong as the film is about a mischievous character.

“The boy is studying in BHU (Banaras Hindu University) and he is quite mischievous, he is not able to spell the word properly but he is doing engineering. Also, it made sense for numerological reason. It is a love story but is also about college students, the politics and the choices they have to make.”

The 44-year-old “Kal Ho Na Ho” helmer shot the 35-minutes film in five days in Varanasi, after almost six months of prior planning.

The initiative features short films by 12 filmmakers, six Indian and as many Pakistani, to make 12 different movies, as an effort to ease the tension between India and Pakistan.

Nikhil says an initiative like this acts as a “catalyst” to start good things between the two countries.

“An initiative like this is at least a start, a beginning. It acts as a catalyst to trigger good things for both the countries. People on both sides of the border want nothing but peace and happiness.”