Anupam Kher teams up with son Sikandar

Since a long time, Anupam Kher has been avoiding doing a film with his son Sikandar Kher. But now, the two can finally be seen together in director Chandan Arora’s next that starts shooting in December amid utmost secrecy. Says a source close to the project, “Anupam avoided films with his son as long as possible with them being offered as many as 6 to 7 films together, all of them as father and son. The veteran actor didn’t want unfair comparisons as was the case with Abhishek Bachchan who, rather early in his career, shared screen space with his iconic father and was mercilessly compared with the senior Bachchan. Anupam didn’t want his son to go through the whole painful process of a comparison. Now, Sikandar has more confidence.” What interested Anupam and Sikandar the most about the offer that they’ve taken up is the fact that they have not been cast as father and son, though they’re together on screen all along the film’s playing-time. When approached, Chandan Arora, who started his career with the production house of Ram Gopal Varma, making Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon before moving out of RGV’s camp to make Main Meri Patni Aur Who and Striker, responded thus, “Yes , I am casting Anupam and Sikandar together in a film that I will launch in December though not as father and son. I can’t tell you much about the content right now. It’s about two strangers who are forced to spend some time together.” The film would have no songs. Interestingly, Kher is not the first star-parent who was hesitant to share screen space with his offspring. For a very long time Dharmendra and Hema Malini refused films with Esha Deol and agreed to play her parents only in Esha’s swan song Tell Me Oh Kkhuda. Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted to cast Dimple and Twinkle Khanna as mother and daughter in his first film Khamoshi: The Musical. While Anupam Kher’s former best friend Anil Kapoor still refuses to share screen space with daughter Sonam, Rishi and Ranbir Kapoor will be seen together in a film that Ayaan Mukherjee is planning.