Not Shahid Kapoor but Akshay Kumar to now step into Suriyas shoes for Soorarai Pottru

2 Aug 2021

Last year, Suriya stunned audiences with Soorarai Pottru, a film loosely inspired from the life of Air Deccan G R Gopinath. While the inspirational biography traces the lesser known story of the ace businessman, the film opened to a thunderous response from the audience when it released digitally. Even before the film hit the marquee, there have been talks about a possible Hindi adaptation of the same.Now, we can confirm that the Hindi remake is indeed happening. The makers have decided to produce the Hindi version as well. A source informed Bollywood Hungama, "It's a pan India film and the story needs to be witnessed by everyone. Because the makers (actor Suriya and Guneet Monga) have the rights to the biopic, they have now planned to go big with Akshay Kumar on board. Yes, they narrated the story to Akshay again and he loved it. He has already given his verbal nod to the project and the team is waiting to lock in on the dates and other modalities."With this, Akshay will replace Shahid Kapoor who was the original choice for the Hindi remake. "Apparently, Shahid loved the film but asked for a ridiculous remuneration which didn't work at all for the makers. After several attempts at convincing Shahid, they gave up when he refused to budge from his Rs. 30 cr. plus fee and a certain profit share, as well. They have now decided to shoot with Akshay for a little over a month and wrap the shoot. Akshay, they feel, will have a bigger crowd pull and he is also a more bankable option." After all, Shahid's loss has now become Akshay's gain. But we wonder when Akshay will shoot this one, given that he's either signed or is already in talks for almost a dozen other projects.