Basic premise of 'Dhadak', 'Sairat' is same: Director Shashank Khaitan

Mumbai: His next "Dhadak" is the remake of the 2016 Marathi blockbuster "Sairat" and Shashank Khaitan says the basic premise of caste difference and honour killing remains the same but he has definitely made some variations to the Hindi version.

Karan Johar has acquired the remake rights of Nagraj Manjule-directed "Sairat", which created history in the Marathi cinema by entering the elite Rs 100-crore club and became a phenomenon as it ran in cinema houses for over 100 days, especially in Maharashtra.

It was last evening that Karan officially revealed the first look of the film titled "Dhadak" - featuring Sridevi's elder daughter Janhvi Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor's half-brother Ishaan Khatter.

"Sairat" was a love story between an upper-caste girl, Archana (Rinku Rajguru), and a fisherman's son, Prashant (Akash Thosar).

"The basic premise is of differences in caste, honour killing and what it means to survive in that world and I feel that is the conflict that is alive all across India, you will hear stories like that.

"So in that sense, the basic premise (of 'Dhadak' and 'Sairat') is same. But there are variations. My story is based on another set up... It is (set) in Rajasthan. It comes with its own challenges, conflicts and style of a love story," says Shashank in an interview with PTI.

The first poster had the two young actors embracing each other against the backdrop of a setting sun in a desert. The second and third posters introduced Janhvi and Ishaan, respectively, in a desi avatar.

"It wasn't tough to get the poster look for the film as we were sticking to the story that we have written and the world that we have created. Even the idea of the poster was to remain as honest as possible to the film that we want to make.

"We are adapting 'Sairat' into the world that we want to. The focus entirely was to present them (Janhvi and Ishaan) as the characters of the film," says Shashank.

"Dhadak" will mark Janhvi's entry as an actor in the Hindi cinema, while for Ishaan this is his second outing. He is making his acting debut with noted Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's movie "Beyond The Clouds" and has assisted director Abhishek Chaubey for "Udta Punjab".

The first schedule of the remake version will begin in December.

The film, to be co-produced by Zee Studios and Dharma Productions, is set for July 6, 2018, release.