A lot is being written, seen and shared about Telugu superstar Vijay Deverakonda’s Bollywood debut in Fighter, a Hindi-Telugu bi-lingual being directed by Puri Jagannath, co-produced by Karan Johar, Puri Jagannath and Charmee Kaur.
Since it’s Vijay’s first full-on action film, he has been training non-stop for it, losing weight and preparing to take off his shirt on camera.
Having said all of this, we still had no confirmation of who Vijay’s leading lady would be in Fighter.
Now it can be told. It’s Ananya Panday, Karan Johar’s blue-eyed girl after Alia Bhatt. Coincidentally Alia too is making her Telugu debut this year (in Rajamouli’s RRR). In both Puri and Rajamouli’s projects, it was Karan Johar who was instrumental in getting his protegee’s on board.
A source very close to Karan Johar informs me that Karan’s other blue-eyed girl Janhvi Kapoor was being seriously considered.
“But Janhvi couldn’t adjust her dates, though she seriously wanted to be part of the film. It was then that Karan asked Ananya Panday (who made her debut in Johar’s Student Of The Year). And she readily agreed,” says the source.
Like Janhvi, Ananya is a big Vijay Deverakonda fan. The two did a fun photo shoot together and are now getting ready for the first schedule of the film.