Nikkhil's film with John, '1911', to go on floors in 2020

Filmmaker Nikkhil Advani says he will soon start writing the script of "1911", which will reunite him with his "Batla House" actor John Abraham.

"1911" follows the story of footballer Shibdas Bhaduri, who captained the football team Mohun Bagan in the historic 1911 IFA Shield Final, where it defeated the East Yorkshire Regiment with a score of 2-1 to become the first Asian team to win the contest.

Nikkhil says the film will go on floors by the end of next year.

"It is a true story. 1911 was when the match between the Immortal Eleven and the Yorkshire regiment took place. It's that one event which ignited the freedom movement in India.

"It's a script that John and his team have been working on for the last five years. Shoojit (Sircar was supposed to direct it but things didn't work out between them," Nikkhil told reporters at an event to celebrate eight years of Emmay Entertainment, a production house that he has founded with Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani.

The director said he loved the idea of "1911".

"It's again nationalistic, patriotic. It triggered off things where 11 men didn't realise how they were energising an entire country to take up a kind of a movement which led to the freedom of India in 1947.

"When I was doing my research, there was a moment in the story, where a young boy asked the captain, Shibdas Bhaduri, when will we ever win against (them)? And he replied, pointing to the British flag, when it will come down. Ironically, they won in 1947," he added.

The director, who just released "Batla House", said he will also be doing a series based on 26/11 for a digital platform.

As far as the company is concerned, the production house has Milap Zaveri's "Marjaavaan" featuring Sidharth Malhotra, Riteish Deshmukh and Tara Sutaria, scheduled to release end of 2019.

"Then we will start 'Indoo Ki Jawaani' which will be directed by Abir Sengupta. It is a female-centric film about a dating app going wrong in Ghaziabad. It is an extremely funny script by Abir. We also have 'Satyameva Jayate 2' in the pipeline.