Baba vs bhoot

Sanjay Dutt

Action, drama, romance, comedy - name any genre, and Sanjay Dutt has explored it in his 43-year career. A horror comedy though has been starkly missing from his filmography. The Virgin Tree, his next co-production, fills that gap. While the project was announced in late 2022, we now hear that it's being readied for an August release.

Deepak Mukut

The actor, who has been relishing his antagonist roles in south movies of late, will switch gears and play a ghostbuster in the movie. Producer Deepak Mukut shares, "Apart from being a horror-comedy, the film is a musical too. The genre of horror is doing well today. Sanjay plays a ghostbuster, and his character has lots of gadgets that he uses to hunt down spirits. The story revolves around a mysterious tree with supernatural forces."

With debutant director Sidhaant Sachdev at the helm, the film stars Mouni Roy and Palak Tiwari. Mukut reveals that Dutt brought the story to him. "When I approached Sanju for a music video a few years back, he narrated the story to me and asked whether we could collaborate on it. We then finalised the script, cast and director. Sidhaant was an associate of Vikram Bhatt, who is an expert in the horror genre."

While The Virgin Tree is the working title, the producer says the team arrived at the name, owing to its pun. "The ‘vir' refers to vardaan, which is a blessing in Hindi. The ‘gin' [is a play on] djinn. So, it is actually The Var-djinn Tree, but we are planning to change the English title. We want something massy."