Exclusive | Ranveer Singh-Led 'Pralay' An Original Story, Not Based on 'Blindness’, Clarifies Hansal Mehta

What does Hansal Mehta, the commercial Hindi film producer, look like? Pretty much the same guy we know from his earlier, varied filmography. Mehta recently disclosed a partial slate of his new-gen banner, True Story Films. Undoubtedly, one of the most exciting projects brewing at the production house is Pralay, a post-apocalyptic thriller headlined by Ranveer Singh and directed by Mehta’s son, Jai, in his feature debut. The film is being co-produced by Singh’s company, Ma Kasam Films, and has a speculated budget of ₹300 crores.

Currently deep in pre-production, Pralay’s screenplay was developed over several months by Jai and his co-writer Vishal Kapoor. After Singh, a major star, assented to the script, it underwent further rounds of development, concept-proofing and pre-visualisation.

“Jai had been working on this idea for a long time,” Hansal Mehta told THR India. “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.”

Pralay will feature unprecedented worldbuilding for a Hindi film, creating a dystopian city ravaged by zombies.

“It’s a post-apocalyptic world that hasn’t been attempted before at this scale in India. Development is not just about writing. It also includes ideas—how you shape them, how you visualise them, and how you eventually sell them to a third party, to a star or a studio. We’ve invested in building those ideas.”

Mehta clarifies that the film is an original story and not an adaptation. Online chatter had suggested the Pralay is adapted from Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago’s 1995 novel Blindness. The rumours seem to stem from an Instagram post by Kalyani Priyadarshan, the female lead of Pralay, who was recommended the book by Jai Mehta.

“It's not an adaptation,” Hansal Mehta clarified. “Jay 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.”

Pralay is expected to go on floors in mid-2026. The team is shoring up a sizable international crew to execute their vision.

Mehta says he’s as involved with the project as ‘a producer should be’. “I am trying to control budgets, reading the script, and giving my inputs where needed. Beyond that, it’s very democratic.”

“The victory of Jai’s film will depend on its immersive nature,” Mehta added, speaking about the extensive vfx work the film would require. “How do you make a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world believable? To that end, we are working with some of the best talent from around the world. And we are trying to achieve it at a fraction of the cost in which Hollywood would have done it.”

Beyond producing Pralay and a host of other titles, Mehta is set to direct Porbandar, a period crime drama set in his home state of Gujarat, and is adding finishing touches to Gandhi, a multi-season series on the life and times of the Mahatma. With Pratik Gandhi in the central role, the series had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025. It is yet to announce a streaming platform and release date.