Akshay Kumar and filmmaker Priyadarshan are taking their partnership in a new direction with their ninth film together. The project will see Kumar play a fictional hunter inspired by hunter and conservationist Jim Corbett. Designed as a comic thriller set in 1960s India, the film will explore wildlife conservation while also touching on poaching and deforestation. The project is expected to begin shooting in January 2027, marking a shift from the comedy-driven films that made the duo popular.
Priyadarshan and Akshay Kumar have previously worked together on films including Hera Pheri and Garam Masala, but this story places comedy alongside an environmental theme. The film will follow a hunter whose relationship with the forest changes over time, allowing the story to combine humour and suspense with a message about protecting wildlife and its natural habitat.
Akshay Kumar’s character is not a direct portrayal of Jim Corbett. Instead, the fictional hunter takes inspiration from Corbett’s life and changing relationship with the wilderness. Born Edward James Corbett, Jim Corbett became known for tracking man-eating tigers and leopards that threatened villages in North India. Later, he became a strong supporter of wildlife protection. That transformation provides an important foundation for Kumar’s character, whose journey is also expected to move from hunting towards conservation.
The 1960s setting will give the film another distinct identity. Rather than placing the story in present-day India, the filmmakers can recreate an earlier period through vintage tracking equipment, traditional village settings and forests before modern development changed many landscapes. This period backdrop also fits the story’s connection to Jim Corbett, while giving Priyadarshan room to create a world that feels separate from the duo’s urban comedies.
The production itself is planned on a large scale. Priyadarshan and his team are expected to conduct a recce in the jungles of Rajasthan and Gujarat, with the intention of filming the movie in real forest locations. Instead of depending on studio sets or digital backgrounds, the production wants the natural surroundings to become an important part of the film. Shooting in actual wilderness could also help the cast and crew capture the atmosphere, terrain and changing natural conditions of the forest more naturally.
Filming is expected to begin in January 2027, with the movie planned around a single start-to-finish schedule in the forest. This means the production is expected to remain in the wilderness rather than moving between separate shooting blocks. The approach could make the filmmaking process demanding, but it also reflects Priyadarshan’s plan to give the forest a central role in the story.
For Akshay Kumar and Priyadarshan, the project adds another chapter to a partnership that has already produced several memorable comedies. Their ninth collaboration comes after films such as Hera Pheri, Garam Masala, Bhagam Bhag, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, De Dana Dan and Khatta Meetha. Their new film, however, appears determined not to simply recreate that formula.
The story is fictional, and casting details are yet to be finalised. Still, the combination of a period adventure and conservation-focused narrative gives the project a distinct identity. It also places the forest at the heart of the filmmaking, rather than treating it as a backdrop. For a duo known for comedy, that shift makes their collaboration worth following as production moves closer.
By combining a 1960s period setting, a hunter inspired by Jim Corbett, forest-based filmmaking and a story about conservation, the project takes Akshay Kumar and Priyadarshan into unfamiliar territory. The balance of comedy, thriller elements and environmental concerns could make this ninth collaboration noticeably different from their earlier work, while the real forests may give the film an atmosphere that studio filmmaking cannot easily reproduce.
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