It was reported last month that actors Akshay Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan will share screen space after 10 years in a film directed by R Balki. Though all three of them own huge production houses in Hari Om Productions, AB Corp Ltd. and Hope Productions, they have roped in a producer to back their project. The producer is none other than Kumar’s wife Twinkle Khanna who is all set to launch her production house — Mrs Funnybones Movies.
Khanna writes a fortnightly column titled Mrs Funnybones in a leading newspaper. However, Daily Bhaskar reports that she will not be involved in the writing of the Balki film, which will be yet another slice-of-life entertainer, a genre that the filmmaker is known for.
Along with Bachchan who will make a special appearance in the film, Kumar will be seen sharing the screen space with two female actors who amazed the audience with their nuanced performances earlier this year in Neerja and Phobia respectively — Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte. While this will mark the first time he collaborates with Apte, Kumar has worked with Kapoor in Anees Bazmee’s comedy ensemble Thank You.
Mumbai Mirror reports that Kapoor will start shooting for the film once she is done wrapping the schedules of Shashanka Ghosh’s Veerey Di Wedding and Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanjay Dutt biopic.
Khanna has retained the patent crew of Balki like cinematographer PC Sriram and music composer Illayaraja. She has conceptualized the film which is slated to go on floors this March, as per the report by Daily Bhaskar.
This is not the first time Khanna has forayed into entrepreneurship. She opened an interior design store called The White Window back in 2002. Banking on her six year-long experience in front of the camera, she joined Kumar and his mother Aruna Bhatia in starting a production house called Hari Om Entertainment. She co-produced 14 films under the banner like Bazmee’s comedy Singh Is King and Tinu Suresh Desai’s period drama Rustom.
She co-founded another production house in Grazing Goats Pictures along with Kumar and Ashwini Yardi and co-produced films like Umesh Shukla’s comedy drama Oh My God! and the television drama series Jamai Raja.
Now that she is handling the behind-the-scenes all by herself, Mrs Funnybones’ managerial and leadership skills are sure to come into play.