Anushree Mehta, who made her directorial debut with the ZEE5 film Mrs Undercover, will direct a remake of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1972 classic Bawarchi starring Rajesh Khanna and Jaya Bachchan.

The Bawarchi remake is part of a three-film adaptation project undertaken by Jadugaar Productions and Sameer Raj Sippy Productions. The other two films that will also be remade are Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Mili (1975) with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri, and Gulzar’s Koshish (1972) with Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar.

Mukherjee’s Bawarchi was a recreation of Tapan Sinha’s 1966 Bengali film Galpo Holeo Satti, which starred Rabi Ghosh.

Anushree Mehta directing Radhika Apte on the sets of Mrs Undercover

Anushree Mehta, who has finished writing the draft of the Bawarchi adaptation, is hoping to get on the floors by this year. The casting for the film is underway.

“The idea of retelling a film is to adapt it according to the current times and make it more relatable to the world we live in today, while keeping the soul and purpose of the original intact. Since Bawarchi itself was a remake of a Bengali film, Hrishida in his time made it relatable to that era,” said Anushree, who directed Radhika Apte in the lead role in Mrs Undercover.

“My attempt is to retell the classic story of Bawarchi in a way that family audiences of all age groups can watch and enjoy the movie together. My business partner Abir Sengupta (Jaadugar Films), Sameer Raj Sippy and I decided to join hands to produce these three iconic films. During our discussion on Bawarchi, Abir and Sameer were of the opinion that I should be writing and directing the remake,” Anushree added.