After Shah Rukh Khan in Zero, actor Riteish Deshmukh will be essaying the role of a dwarf in Milap Milan Zaveri’s upcoming film, Marjaavan. Riteish’s character will be the main villain of the film, which also stars Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria and Rakul Preet Singh. Riteish and Sidharth last faced off each other in Ek Villain. The 2013 thriller film was directed by Mohit Suri and written by Zaveri.

On casting Riteish once again as a villain in Marjaavan, Zaveri said, “Riteish's villainous role had to be better than the last time. I decided to raise the bar by scaling him down in size. Even though he is a dwarf, his character is larger than life. The part is extremely wicked with dark humour, great punch lines and some crazy face-off scenes with Sid."

“While Sidharth has already started shooting for the film, Riteish will join the cast soon. Riteish is preparing hard for his character by analysing and observing how someone of that height would walk, gesticulate and run. He is also taking workshops,” read a statement from the makers. 

Riteish Deshmukh was last seen in the Marathi action film, Mauli, which released on December 14. Co-produced by T-Series and Emmay Entertainment, Marjaavan is scheduled to release on October 2, 2019. Zaveri’s last film, Satyameva Jayate, starring John Abraham and Manoj Bajpayee, was a commercial success.