Dinesh Vijan To Adapt Arabian Nights, To Make Films On Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves And Aladdin

After the success of its romantic comedy ‘Zara Hatke Zara Bachke’, Dinesh Vijan's Maddock Films is all set to make films based on Arabian Nights, including a film on Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves apart from standalone projects on Aladdin and Sinbad. 

In an interview to Variety, Dinesh revealed, “The new purchasing power, the new India needs stories, which are within India. The next phase of what we want to try and do is, we want to up the ante, we still want to make stories which are powerful, but if you have to go to theaters, we need to make them larger.”

Apart from the Arabian Nights, Maddock Films is already building a horror comedy universe with ‘Stree 2’, starring Shraddha Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Abhishek Banerjee and Aparshakti Khurana, and ‘Bhediya 2’, starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon. The same was hinted by Amar Kaushik in the climax and post-credit song, ‘Thumkeshwari’, of ‘Bhediya’.

Coming to ‘Zara Hatke Zara Bachke’, the comedy film starred Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan in lead roles, and is close to minting Rs 70 crore at the Indian box office in its third week.

On streaming, Maddock recently bankrolled ‘Chor Nikal Ke Bhaaga’, starring Yami Gautam and Sunny Kaushal, for Netflix India, apart from ‘Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo’, a crime drama directed by Homi Adajania. The slate also included ‘Jee Karda’, a series starring Tamannaah Bhatia for Prime Video India.

As for the upcoming projects of Maddock, there is an untitled romantic drama starring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, ‘Murder Mubarak’, a mystery film for Netflix India directed by Homi, ‘Tehran’, an action film starring John Abraham and Manushi Chhillar, ‘Ikkis’, Sriram Raghavan's war drama starring Agastya Nanda and Dharmendra, ‘Chhaava’, Laxman Utekar's period action film starring Vicky Kaushal and Rashmika Mandanna, and lastly, ‘Shiddat 2’, with Sunny Kaushal and Parineeti Chopra.