Rana Daggubati starts shooting for 'Housefull 4'

Actor Rana Daggubati has started shooting for the upcoming Bollywood laugh riot 'Housefull 4'.

The 'Ghazi Attack' actor took to his official Twitter handle and shared the news with his fans, writing, "Heading to the sets of Housefull 4. Shooting in Mumbai after a very long time!!"

Daggubati was not a part of the cast earlier, this development comes weeks after Nana Patekar decided to step out of the project after facing sexual harassment allegations by Tanushree Dutta.

The 67-year-old actor's son Malhar Nana Patekar had announced the veteran actor's exit from the film. "Nana saheb thought of the convenience of everybody as he wishes the best for the producer and the crew and hence felt that stepping out of the project would be an appropriate thing to do at this point of time," read his statement.

Director Sajid Khan, who was helming the film earlier, had also stepped down following allegations of sexual harassment by three women, namely actor Rachel White, assistant director Saloni Chopra and journalist Karishma Upadhyay.

Sajid Khan was replaced by Farhad Samji, who is now directing the fourth installment of the 'Housefull' franchise. He had also helmed the third part of the film.

The multi-starrer comedy features Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde in the lead roles. It also stars Chunky Pandey, Johnny Lever, and Boman Irani. Based on the theme of reincarnation, the fourth film of the 'Housefull' series is slated to hit the big screens on Diwali 2019.

Rana Daggubati is also prepping for another upcoming film - a biopic on Telugu actor-turned-politician Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (NTR) - in which he will play Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. He had also met Naidu as part of preparations for the film.