Kriti Sanon Confirms Solo Lead, Speaks on Pay and Trolls

Kriti Sanon has spent the past few days making two points at once. In remarks carried by Bollywood Hungama on October 24 and by Moneycontrol a day earlier, she confirmed that her next film rests on her alone and asked audiences to turn a woman-led film into a blockbuster. In the same stretch, an episode of Kareena Kapoor Khan's talk show What Women Want had her speaking at length about the trolling over her Raksha Bandhan advertisement in August. Put together, the two conversations say a lot about where the actor stands after Cocktail 2.

The quote that travelled furthest was about her next project. "I'm doing a film that is on my shoulders, a solo lead next," Kriti said, according to Bollywood Hungama. "And I actually want the audiences to make it make as much money as it would if it had a male actor. Make it a blockbuster, and things will change."

She did not name the film in those remarks. Both Bollywood Hungama and Moneycontrol describe it as a large-scale horror project backed by Maddock Films, and both frame that link as reported rather than announced. No title, release date or official cast list has been made public.

What has been reported about the film

The details have come out in pieces, mostly through exclusives. On October 14, Filmfare reported, citing sources, that the untitled film will be directed by Amit Sharma and that it will be pure horror, set apart from the horror-comedy universe Maddock built with films such as Munjya and Roohi. Filmfare added that pre-production was already under way and that Kriti had locked the project as her next.

Six days later, Variety India reported that the story was written by actor Sadia Khateeb, who made her debut in Akshay Kumar's Raksha Bandhan and later appeared in John Abraham's The Diplomat. Variety India described the project as an urban horror film co-produced by Amar Kaushik, the director of Stree, Stree 2 and Bhediya. It said the storyline and shooting schedule were still under wraps.

Filmfare counts this as Kriti's ninth collaboration with Maddock Films, a relationship that goes back to Raabta in 2017 and runs through Luka Chuppi, Mimi, Bhediya and Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya. According to the Filmfare source, she has said in interviews that she is not fond of watching horror films but wanted to try the genre to push herself as an actor.

The pay gap, in her words

The solo-lead comment came inside a longer answer on remuneration. Kriti said more substantial parts are being written for women, partly because of streaming platforms, but that fees have not caught up. "There is a lot of difference in the pay and the fee, which still needs to change," she said, as quoted by Bollywood Hungama and Moneycontrol.

She did not put the blame only on producers. In the fuller version of the quote published by Bollywood Hungama, she called it "a mathematical calculation of what the return is going to be in theatres, what the platforms pay for certain films and certain actors." Her argument was that audiences hold part of the answer: "when that happens, and a film that's on a female's shoulders opens to big numbers, things will change." Bollywood Hungama read her remarks as a case that box-office results for women-led films could shift how the industry approaches casting, budgets and fees.

Speaking up about the Raksha Bandhan advert

The second conversation went back to August. Kriti appeared in a Raksha Bandhan advertisement for the jewellery brand GIVA, the Times of India notes, and her outfit drew a wave of online criticism. At the time, Kriti responded on Instagram that culture and traditions are "in her heart, not in her neckline," and the brand withdrew the advertisement days later, The Indian Express reports.

Speaking to Kareena on What Women Want, Kriti said she normally ignores trolls but that this episode was different. "My choli became a national debate," she said, according to The Indian Express, adding that she could not believe it had turned into "a six-person panel discussion on prime-time news."

What upset her most, she said, was that the abuse spread to her family. "People who are talking about culture, respect, were ironically the ones who were commenting on my parents and sister's post in the nastiest abusive language," she told Kareena, as quoted by The Indian Express. The paper reports that her sister asked her to switch off comments. Kriti said the row was not really about her, but about women being targeted over the smallest things.

Where her year stands

The new film follows Cocktail 2, the Homi Adajania romantic comedy with Shahid Kapoor and Rashmika Mandanna that released in theatres on June 19, 2026, as Filmfare reported when the date was announced. Variety India calls it a moderate success and puts its domestic collection at ₹95.50 crore.

That context matters for her pitch. Cocktail 2 was an ensemble film with a male co-lead. The horror project, as reported so far, would put her name alone above the title, which is the situation she was describing when she asked audiences to back a woman-led film the way they would back a male star's.

Several basics remain open. Maddock Films has not announced the project, and the title, release window and supporting cast are unknown. The director and writer have been named only in reports by Filmfare and Variety India, citing sources. Until the makers make an announcement, the confirmed part is Kriti's own statement that her next film is a solo lead.

Sources

Cover photo: Laura Lee Dooley from Arlington, VA, USA, Wikimedia Commons, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:-IIFA2017_-_NYC_(35532982660).jpg](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:-IIFA2017_-_NYC_(35532982660).jpg) (CC BY 2.0).