Karan Johar is now working on his third biopic on freedom fighter Usha Mehta, following the critical and commercial success of two war-hero biopics, Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl in 2020 and Shershaah in 2021, both of which were released around the Independence Day weekend.
It has been reported that Karan Johar plans on making Independence Day films a regular thing. A film on an unsung national hero would be produced every year, he said. At first, it was only Karan Johar’s Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl, which told the story of India’s very first air force pilot Vikram Batra’s biography Shershaah, which was released in 2021, has also been favourably acclaimed. Kannan Iyer, who helmed the creepy Ek Thi Dayan in 2013, will direct Karan’s third Usha Mehta feature. Other warriors, combat heroes, and freedom fighters are being tracked down,” says a source.
Karan Johar’s new film is a break from the usual biopics about criminals and other anti-social forces that have recently appeared in Bollywood.