Filmmaker and producer Hansal Mehta, in a recent interview, spoke about his son Jai Mehta’s feature debut Pralay, a dystopian zombie film which will be Ranveer Singh’s next after Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Hansal revealed that Ranveer reached out to Jai after seeing the latter’s work and then the Lootere (2024) pitched Pralay to him. He also clarified that the film is an original story and, contrary to online chatter, is not an adaptation of Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago’s 1995 novel Blindness.

In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Hansal said that his son Jai has been working on the project for a long time. “When Ranveer saw his work, he reached out to him and then Jai pitched it to him. Once Ranveer said he liked the idea, we invested in developing it—helping Jai create the world he wants to present in the film,” he said.

The filmmaker further said that the film is an “original story.” “It's not an adaptation,” he said. “Jai and Vishal Kapoor have written the original story. Further, I think a book like Blindness is not easily adapted to film. I had seen the 2008 film adaptation (starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo) and it wasn’t great. Writers like Saramago or Salman Rushdie… I feel they are best experienced on paper. Their books lose all their magic when interpreted for cinema.”

As per the report, Pralay is expected to go on floors in mid-2026. It will also star Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra star Kalyani Priyadarshan.