Despite all the controversy that unnecessarily surrounds him, a Karan Johar movie is always highly-awaited. Takht is no different. The filmmaker announced the star-studded cast of his magnum opus in 2019 which includes Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Anil Kapoor. The film was also reportedly going on floors next month but production was halted due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

However, rumours have plagued the film since the beginning. With no comment or news from Johar and team regarding Takht, whispers abounded that the film had been shelved due to the high production cost of other Dharma films like Brahmastra.

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Bollywood Hungama reported yesterday that Takht had been shelved. “There are several reasons why it has happened. To begin with, it’s too costly a film. Its budget is expected to be around Rs. 250-300 crores. Like every other producer, even Karan had to bear losses due to Covid-19. Also, his expensive films like Brahmastra and Liger are already in production or awaiting release, along with his mid-sized ones like Shershaah, Dostana 2, Jug Jugg Jeeyo and Shakun Batra’s next. Adding Takht to this list won’t be a good idea,” a source told the website.

“Since the very beginning, no studio was on board for the film. It was believed that Fox Star Studios was backing Takht because of its partnership with Dharma. But the fact is that Fox was never on board. Karan tried pitching Takht to other studios but his efforts proved futile,” the source added and also said: “Takht is based on Mughal history. The current political climate is volatile and you never know when things can get ugly. We all saw what happened with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat (2018). Karan felt that there’s no way he can risk taking such a project in such times as a lot of money would then be at stake. As a result, Karan Johar has decided to shelve Takht for now. He might revive the project maybe after a couple of years.”

However, the star filmmaker has now come out with a terse and crisp statement to SpotboyE.

“Takht is not shelved. It’s just delayed,” Karan Johar said.

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