On his 50th birthday in 2022, Karan Johar announced an action film as his next directorial post ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani.’ It was supposed to mark a significant departure from his signature romantic dramas. However, three years later, PeepingMoon.com has exclusively learned the Dharma Productions head honcho has abandoned his action film and is now crafting a new love story as his next directorial project. Karan has begun writing the script and aims to take it on floors sometime in 2026.

Meanwhile, his ambitious action project — tentatively titled Lag Jaa Gale —has been handed over to Raj Mehta, best known for family comedies like ‘Good Newwz’ and ‘Jug Jugg Jeeyo.’ The film, all action and romance with a revenge backdrop, will star Tiger Shroff and Janhvi Kapoor and is expected to go into production around October-November.

Karan initially aspired to explore large-scale action filmmaking but later realized that the genre didn’t align with his natural storytelling sensibilities. However, he was so impressed by the script by Debashish Irengbam and Parijat Joshi, he handed it over to a filmmaker who would do justice to the project while staying on board as producer. 

Raj Mehta, who has long been interested in directing an action film, was once working on an action franchise titled ‘Deadly’ with Varun Dhawan, Tiger Shroff, and Janhvi Kapoor. It was shelved due to creative differences over the script. But the director’s long-awaited foray into the action space now comes true with ‘Lag Jaa Gale.’

In an interesting twist of creative exchange at Dharma Productions, Raj Mehta has passed on his own directorial project — a family romcom titled ‘Kuku Ki Kundali’ — to Sharan Sharma who directed ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’ and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Mahi’ for Dharma. It stars YouTube sensation Bhuvan Bam and Wamiqa Gabbi. Sharma reportedly took on the project after his planned human drama with Sidharth Malhotra was shelved.

Dharma Productions has a robust slate of upcoming projects. Kajol, Prithviraj Sukumaran, and Ibrahim Ali Khan’s terrorism thriller, ‘Sarzameen,’ premiered on Jio Hotstar just yesterday, while Triptii Dimri and Siddhant Chaturvedi starrer ‘Dhadak 2’ is set to release in theatres on August 1. This will be followed by Varun and Janhvi's ‘Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari,’ which is scheduled to hit cinemas on October 2. Also in the pipeline are an untitled spy comedy with Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan, ‘Chand Mera Dil,’ starring Lakshya and Ananya Panday, and two films with Kartik Aaryan, ‘Tu Meri Main Tera Main Tera Tu Meri’ and ‘Naagzilla.'