A lot is being written, seen and shared about Telugu superstar Vijay Deverakonda’s Bollywood debut in Fighter, a Hindi-Telugu bi-lingual being directed  by Puri Jagannath, co-produced by Karan Johar, Puri Jagannath and Charmee Kaur. Since it’s Vijay’s first full-on action film, he has been training non-stop for it, losing weight  and preparing to take  off his shirt on  camera.

Having said  all of this, we still had no confirmation  of who Vijay’s  leading lady would be in  Fighter.  Now it can be  told. It’s Ananya Panday, Karan  Johar’s  blue-eyed girl after Alia Bhatt. Coincidentally Alia  too  is making her Telugu debut this year (in Rajamouli’s RRR). In both, Puri and Rajamouli’s projects  it was Karan Johar who was instrumental  in getting his protegees on board.

A  source very close to Karan Johar informs that  Karan’s  other  blue-eyed girl Janhvi Kapoor who made her debut in Dhadak two years ago, was being seriously considered. “But Janhvi couldn’t adjust her dates, though she seriously wanted to be  part  of  the   film. It was then that Karan asked Ananya Pandey (who made her  debut in Johar’s Student Of  The Year). And she readily agreed,” says  the  source.

Like Janhvi, Ananya is  a  big Vijay Deverakonda fan. The two did a fun photoshoot together and are  now  getting ready for the  first schedule   of  the film. Ananya was seen recently in the Kartik Aaryan starrer Pati, Patni Aur Woh which did fairly well at the box office. Her performance in the film was appreciated too.

Vijay Deverakonda has become hot property after his blockbuster Arjun Reddy was remade in Hindi as Kabir Singh starring Shahid Kapoor. It was one of the biggest hits of 2019.