Bollywood
Post-Dhurandhar 2 Landscape: Ranveer Singh's Pralay Locks Rs. 300 Crore Budget; Inside the Mid-2026 Shoot Plan for Jai Mehta's Zombie Epic
Ranveer Singh is set to venture into the post-apocalyptic genre with the upcoming movie Pralay. This high-concept zombie thriller is being mounted on a massive scale with a budget of 300 crore. The project is a collaboration between Hansal Mehta's True Story Films and Ranveer Singh's own banner, Ma Kasam Films. Production is officially scheduled to commence in mid-2026. This gritty zombie thriller aims to introduce a world-class apocalyptic scale to the domestic big screen. The film represents a bold creative pivot for the actor, moving into a genre that has rarely been explored with such massive investment and technical magnitude in the Hindi film industry. The film is directed by Jai Mehta, who previously gained significant recognition for co-directing the 2020 hit Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. That series was a critical and commercial landmark, securing 11 wins out of 14 nominations at the 2021 Filmfare OTT Awards, including honors for best drama series, director, and actor. Its impact was felt widely across the industry, with the theme music by Achint Thakkar reaching over 7 million streams and the show successfully explaining complex financial scams to a mainstream audience. The success of Scam 1992 even led to a follow-up titled Scam 2003: The Telgi Story. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) Pralay is based on an original screenplay by Jai Mehta and Vishal Kapoor, the script, co-written by Jai and Vishal Kapoor, is a purely original screenplay, putting to rest earlier rumors that it might be an adaptation of the Jose Saramago 1995 novel, Blindness. Joining Ranveer Singh in the lead is Kalyani Priyadarshan, who will be making her highly anticipated Bollywood debut with this project. For Ranveer Singh, whose last major appearance was in the record-breaking Dhurandhar 2, this survivor role in a desolate world offers a stark contrast to his previous high-octane performances. The 300 crore budget is intended to facilitate state-of-the-art visual effects and large-scale world-building. Following the family legacy of Hansal Mehta, who produced the original Scam 1992, Jai Mehta is now stepping into the big-budget blockbuster arena. The film aims to combine the meticulous storytelling grit associated with the Mehta name with the massive spectacle of a modern zombie epic. With pre-production already in motion, Pralay remains a key project on the horizon as it prepares for its 2026 production start.