The sci-fi action thriller reuniting Akshay Kumar with producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah after thirteen years moves into a 20-day home stretch with most of the film already in the can.
Akshay Kumar is done with the UK. Samuk, the sci-fi action thriller he's shooting with producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah, has wrapped its overseas schedule and is moving to Mumbai for what the team is calling the final leg, roughly 20 days of shooting to close out the film.
The UK stretch began in late August and, per Filmibeat, accounts for close to 80 per cent of the film. That's a big chunk of a project that's reportedly been in the works for over two years. Whatever's left, interiors, pickups, the connective tissue a shoot like this always needs, gets done in Mumbai now.
Director Kanishk Varma is steering a film that's been described as blending science fiction, action and survival, which in plain terms means Akshay is probably running from something that isn't human. That something has a name behind it worth noting. Alec Gillis, the Oscar-nominated creature designer who worked on the Alien and Predator films, has built the central creature for Samuk. That's not a small credit to attach to an Indian production, and it signals the makers want the monster to actually hold up next to the genre's Hollywood benchmarks rather than look like an afterthought.
The cast around Akshay is an odd, interesting mix: Rukmini Maitra, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Swanand Kirkire, Banita Sandhu and Sushant Singh. Nobody's saying who plays what yet. The makers have kept plot and character details shut tight, which for a film this scale is either smart marketing or there's genuinely something they don't want leaking before a trailer exists.
The bigger story here might actually be the reunion. Akshay Kumar and Vipul Amrutlal Shah haven't made a film together in thirteen years. Shah is producing under Sunshine Pictures, with Aashin A. Shah co-producing, and the two clearly think there's enough left to say to each other to go big on a genre Bollywood rarely attempts at this scale.
Samuk is being built as a theatrical spectacle first, not a streaming play. The plan, as it stands, is a pan-India release in 2027, which puts it comfortably past the Mumbai schedule, post-production, VFX passes and whatever marketing runway a film with a creature like this will need.
None of the specifics on the story, Gillis's creature, the plot, what Rukmini Maitra or Vineet Kumar Singh are actually playing, have been confirmed beyond what the makers have let slip. Expect the first real details, and maybe a first look at that creature, once the Mumbai schedule wraps and post-production kicks into gear.
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