Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt pair up for Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy

Zoya Akhtar has finalised the cast of her next directorial venture, Gully Boy. She plans to bring together Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt to play the lead roles in the film, co-produced by Zoya’s recently-launched banner Tiger Baby and Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment.

While Ranveer and Alia have not starred in a film together, they have done several advertisements for the travel website Make My Trip. The hit producer duo Farhan-Ritesh, who last worked together for Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees, are back with Gully Boy.

The film is about the lives of street rappers from Mumbai’s chawls and ghettos. Zoya and Ranveer attended a few sessions of two street rappers, Naezy and Divine, who were the subjects of a documentary Bombay 70, while researching for the film. Gully Boy is reportedly inspired by the characters of Naezy and Divine..

There have been reports that Ranveer’s character will be based on Naezy’s life.

The shoot of the movie is likely to begin in November 2017.

While Ranveer is currently working on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati that also stars Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, Alia will soon be seen in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya opposite Varun Dhawan.