While there are plans around the country to phase out the yellow and black taxis from the business, Bollywood has found a way to retain them. And while B-town actors have apprehensions against picking up cabbie roles in American and Hollywood productions, they love doing the job in the Bollywood flicks for sure.
This year, three upcoming films will see the yellow and black vehicles in action.
John Abraham will be seen reprising south star Ajith Kumar in Vedalam as the film is being remade in Hindi. In this film John will play a taxi driver who fights with the underworld gang.
“Mahesh Bhatt’s earlier writer confidante Shagufta Rafique has made a film called Taxi Driver which is ready for release. The film has newcomer Yash Dasgupta paired opposite Mimi Chakraborty. Ishaan Khatter who is seen romancing Ananya Pandey in Khaali Peeli also plays a taxi driver in that film,” says our source.
For the uninitiated, Khaali Peeli in Bambaiyya means black and yellow cabs in Mumbai. In 2014, Salman Khan was also one of the producers of Vinay Virmani and Isabelle Kaif starrer film Dr Cabbie, which saw Vinay playing a doctor from India who turns a cabbie in Canada.
Among Indian actors who have essayed a taxi driver’s role in the past are Dev Anand in the 1954 film Taxi Driver with Kalpana Kartik who later became his wife, Amitabh Bachchan 1982 release Khuddaar, Om Puri in a British film My Son in 1997, and Akshaye Khanna in Aa Ab Laut Chalein in 1999.
