Another real life incident translated into reel life. Priyadarshan’s forthcoming project ‘Khatta Meetha’ (featuring Akshay Kumar and Trisha) is said to be based on PWD engineer Yogendra Pandey who was mysteriously killed in 2009. While Makrand Deshpande will do the character of Pandey, Akshay will be playing the role of the victim’s colleague who unveils the murderers.

According to the director, initially, Khatta Meetha was based his 1990 Malayalam film ‘Vellanakalude Nadu’, which was on the road mafia and corruption in the construction business. However at that point of time, it was entirely fictional and Akki felt that the movie should be more relevant to contemporary times. “We brought in the whole story of the death of the honest road engineer in Bihar who was apparently killed by the corrupt road mafia when he threatened to expose their wrongdoings. We introduced Makrand’s character based on Yogendra Pandey and Akshay as the friend and colleague who uncovers the bloody trail,” revealed Priyan. Akshay believed that they have been able to do something important here, in bringing the message through the comedy, added the director.

The National Award winning director stated that he will be doing this kind of a mixture of social comment and satire more often. “In Khatta Meetha we took up a very serious and disturbing crime situation in Bihar but treated it lightly. No one wants to watch grim films anymore. We just have to find a way of letting the audience know what’s actually going on in the world while transporting them into a make-believe world at the same time,” quoted the director.

Currently the shooting of the movie is going on in Satara and they said to have shot in 90 days at a stretch.