Actress Richa Chadha is all set to play Malayalam star Shakeela in an upcoming biopic. Shakeela was one of Kerala’s biggest heroines of the 90s and featured in several adult films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada languages.
The biopic will be helmed by Indrajit Lankesh who has previously bagged the V. Shantaram Award for Best Debutant Director for his first film, Thuntata.
The biopic follows the story of Shakeela’s entry in the film industry at the age of 16 and traces her life’s journey. Shakeela’s films weren’t only dubbed in languages across India but in Chinese, Nepalese and several other languages as well. Shakeela became a popular figure in films at a time when men dominated the industry.
A spokesperson for Richa Chadha stated, “The film is the story of Shakeela, one of the most famous actors from Malayalam cinema from the 90s who rose to a spectacular amount of fame. Her fans were spread across Asia and she earned fanfare as a woman which was unheard of, back then. The film’s script was exciting and is a great story to tell and the story will make for a great watch for the audience. The preparations will begin soon and the film should be going on floors in end April or May.”
The Shakeela biopic reportedly will go on floors in April 2018 and will release in early 2019.
