Why Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan’s The Intern remake never took off: Where it stands now

Picture this: Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan, reunited on screen for the first time since Piku charmed everyone with its gentle Kolkata-to-Delhi road trip and Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika's squabbling father-daughter bond.

That was the promise dangling in front of Bollywood fans for years — and now...crickets.

The pitch that never quite left the ground

Back in 2020, KA Productions (Deepika's own banner) snapped up the rights to remake The Intern — the 2015 Nancy Meyers dramedy where Anne Hathaway's frazzled startup CEO gets an unlikely office bestie in Robert De Niro's 70-year-old senior intern. Deepika was set to play the Hathaway role, with the original plan pairing her opposite Rishi Kapoor for a version announced back in January 2020.

Then tragedy struck: Kapoor died of cancer in April 2020.

Amitabh Bachchan was signed on

A year later, in April 2021, Deepika announced Amitabh Bachchan as Kapoor's replacement — and this is where the Piku nostalgia kicked in hard. Announcing the news on Instagram, she called it "an absolute honour to be collaborating with one of my most special co-stars again," welcoming him to the project. It would've actually been their third outing together, following Prakash Jha's Aarakshan and, of course, Shoojit Sircar's Piku — the film that made everyone fall for their father-daughter chemistry in the first place.

At the time, the plan was ambitious: shoot in November 2021, release by summer 2022, directed by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, with Warner Bros. India, Azure Entertainment and KA Productions all co-producing.

Then... nothing. For years.

Summer 2022 came and went with no film. The delays piled up, pandemic disruptions, Deepika's maternity break, and general scheduling chaos kept pushing the shoot further and further down the calendar. Five years after the rights were acquired, the project was essentially in limbo.

Deepika steps behind the camera

In August 2025, the update finally dropped — but not the one anyone expected. Deepika exited the acting role entirely to focus purely on producing. A source told Mid-Day the plan is for her to oversee the creative and logistical reboot as producer, while a new leading lady is cast for the part she was originally set to play. Amitabh Bachchan, notably, is still attached.

It's not an isolated move either, this came on the heels of Deepika stepping away from Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Spirit amid reported creative differences and on-set demands, and rumors (since denied) about a reduced role in Kalki 2 following her return from maternity leave.

So what do we actually lose here?

Mainly, that reunion. Piku worked because Deepika and Amitabh had this lived-in, bickering-family warmth that's genuinely rare on screen. The Intern's whole premise, a wise, patient older mentor steadying a stressed-out young professional — practically begged for that same dynamic. Now that magic's on hold indefinitely, waiting on whoever gets cast opposite Bachchan instead.

The film's had global cousins too, for what it's worth, Japan got its own version in 2022, Unicorn ni Notte, with Hidetoshi Nishijima and Mei Nagano in the lead roles. So the story clearly travels well. Bollywood's version just can't seem to get out of pre-production purgatory.

Where things stand now

As of the latest update, the project is on hold with no confirmed start date, no release window, and no female lead. Five years in, two changes of leading man, one pandemic, one maternity break, and a full pivot for Deepika from actor to producer, and The Intern still hasn't shot a single frame. Amitabh remains attached, still waiting for a co-star.

If there's a next headline coming, it'll likely be word of who's replacing Deepika opposite Bachchan. Until then, The Intern remains Bollywood's most patient intern — still waiting to actually start the job.