Dulquer Salmaan and sonam kapoor in The Zoya Factor

The film that will be helmed by Abhishek Sharma is written by Neha Rakesh Sharma and Pradhuman Singh. Slated to release on 5th April 2019, the film will go on floors this August.

Dulquer will play Nikhil Khoda, the captain of the Indian Cricket Team in the film for which Fox Star Studios is collaborating with Aarti and Pooja Shetty, with Sonam as Zoya Singh Solanki, an advertising agent. “She was the first person that came to my mind as she’s as bubbly as Zoya and after seeing Neerja, I’d sent her an autographed copy of the book requesting that she read it. We both got busy with our respective commitments after that but a few months later, Sonam checked with Aarti, a close friend of hers, on the status of the screen adaptation,” Abhishek reminisces.

The book was about a client service rep that is pulled away from a Shah Rukh Khan shoot to go cut a commercial for a soft drink with the Indian cricket team whose disciplinarian captain cuts into her time forcing her to stay back. Meanwhile, the players learn that Zoya was born at the moment the Indian team won its first World Cup in 1983. They also discover that if they have breakfast with her, they return victorious and vice versa, leading Zoya to become a lucky charm for not just the boys in blue, but also the president of the cricket board and the country at large. The only one who is skeptical is the newly appointed skipper, Nikhil. Zoya and he are at loggerheads even as they are drawn to each other, and cola majors and other cricket boards try to steal her away while in the thick of World Cup action. Prod Abhishek on whether he has made any changes to the original story and he says, “A few for which I convinced Anuja. The story is now set in 2011 before India lifted its second World Cup and we have shifted base from Delhi to Mumbai,” he says with a smile.