Khaali Peeli is not the Hindi remake of a Telugu film, says director Maqbool Khan

When the Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday-starrer Khaali Peeli was announced, it was widely believed that it is the Hindi adaptation of Vijay Deverakonda’s Telugu comedy thriller,

Taxiwaala

. However, that isn’t the case. Directed by Maqbool Khan, the film is an original script written by

Yash Keswani

and

Sima Aggarwal

along with

Maqbool

himself. The film is set in Mumbai with an underlying ‘Bambaiyya’ tone.

Maqbool clarified, “Perhaps the striking imagery of a cab rumours about this film being a remake of the South hit, but that’s not true. It never was. Ours is an original story that my writers and I worked on for a year.”
Shot at real locations in Mumbai, the film’s key sequences were filmed in old Bombay, including a high-voltage action scene in Bhendi Bazaar. The film went on floors in September 2019 and finished principal photography before the nationwide lockdown was announced in March.