Jaideep Ahlawat to play villain in 'Khaali Peeli'

Jaideep Ahlawat has been roped to play the antagonist in Ishaan and Ananya Panday-starrer "Khaali Peeli".

The FTII graduate, Jaideep is known for stellar performances in films like "Raazi", "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Raees" and Netflix anthology "Lust Stories", among others.

"It's always challenging to play a typical Hindi film villain- something different from what I have been doing, I hope I do justice to the written part and I am looking forward to work with this young talent," Ahlawat said in a statement.

"Khaali Peeli" is produced by Zee Studios, Ali Abbas Zafar and Himanshu Kishan Mehra.

Co-producer Ali Abbas Zafar said the team chose Ahlawat because he was an apt choice to play the villain in the film.

"It's a performance-driven film and we decided to handpick Jaideep because he is an incredible actor. He perfectly fits the strong negative character in the film who is a typical Indian traditional villain. He plays an important and significant part of the film, we look forward to working with him," Zafar said.

Jaideep will next be seen in his second Netflix outing, "Bard of Blood" series.