Recently, Priyadarshan had confirmed that he is going to direct Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan in a new film, after wrapping up Bhoot Bangla with the former. On Saturday, the filmmaker announced filming commencement with an on-set picture with him alongside the two stars.
In the film titled Haiwaan, Saif is playing a visually impaired character, sparking speculations that the film will be a Hindi-language remake of Priyadarshan's Mohanlal-starrer Oppam, a 2016 thriller, parts of which were said to be inspired by the 2011 Korean thriller Blind and the 1991 Martin Scorsese thriller Cape Fear.
Shot by cinematographer Divakar Mani, with whom Priyadarshan worked in Corona Papers, Haiwaan is backed by KVN Productions and Thespian Films. The former is also the company producing other upcoming big-budget releases such as Yash-starrer Toxic and Vijay's Jananayagan. Both companies are also producing Manjummel Boys director Chidambaram's upcoming project Balan, marking their Malayalam cinema debut. KVN Productions also has Lokesh Kanagaraj's Kaithi 2 in the pipeline.
Reports of Saif and Priyadarshan teaming up have been doing the rounds since last year. At the time, Peepingmoon.com had specifically mentioned that Saif was in advanced talks to play a blind man suspected of murder in the "Hindi remake of Priyadarshan’s 2016 blockbuster, Oppam."
The report also said that Priyadarshan has tweaked the script to make it accessible to Hindi-speaking audiences and that Bobby Deol was approached to play the villain, however, there was no confirmation of his involvement yet. Tamil actor Samuthirakani played the antagonist in the original. Interestingly, Ajay Devgn was first reported to be circling Mohanlal's role right after Oppam came out.