June 21 (AZINS) Anurag Basu says his next film with Abhishek Bachchan and Rajkummmar Rao is not a sequel to his 2007 romantic-drama Life In A...Metro. The film, described as a dark comic anthology, will also feature Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanya Malhotra and Fatima Sana Shaikh.

Anurag Basu says other than the fact that the film will have four intersecting stories like Life In A...Metro, the new project is entirely different. "The genre is different. 'Life...' had drama, love story and it revolved around multiple stories about relationships. This is not that. This film has bit of crime and black humour in it. The only common thing is all four stories are intersecting and affecting each other. I don't want to confuse the audience and call it as a sequel to 'Life..'," Basu said.

The director says he had a great time working with a stellar star cast on the project, which will mark a reunion of sorts for Fatima and Sanya after their 2016 blockbuster Dangal. "They are both fabulous. I had the baggage of 'Dangal' while casting them. But their characters are completely different in this film. They will surprise you."

Basu says the film's shoot will wrap up in next 10 to 15 days after which the post production work will begin. The film is scheduled to be released in February next year. It was previously set to hit the theatres on September 6 this year.

After the project, Basu says he will start working his next Imali, which at one point was supposed to feature his Gangster actor Kangana Ranaut. She quit the film over scheduling issues. "We were supposed to start in November but we couldn't because she got busy with 'Manikarnika' and 'Panga'. Even I got busy with my other film. She wanted to be in good space and time to do this film but things did not work out."

There were reports that Deepika Padukone is likely to replace Kangana in the film, but the director says nothing is finalised as of now. "I cannot confirm till she confirms anything. I did meet her. She has to confirm it to me and then we can confirm it to others."

Basu was talking on the sidelines of the finale of his dance reality show Super Dancer, which will be aired on June 23.Basu says the third season has had amazing talented kids showing their dancing skills."It is my wish to see more Indian dance, there is so much to explore. I like all the contestants but Tejas Verma and Rupsa Batabyal more," he adds.

Basu says the show Super Dancer enjoys massive popularity with both audience and celebrities because it is "pure" and there is no "melodrama". "Our show 'Super Dancer' is getting lot of love because it is still pure, there is no artificial drama. We (Basu, co-judges Shilpa Shetty and Geeta Kapoor) are just being real, we are not trying to be someone else. There are times when judges wear mask infront of the camera but we don't."