Akshay Kumar-Vipul Amrutlal Shah reunite for alien thriller Samuk after 12 years

Akshay Kumar is heading where he hasn’t gone before alien territory. The actor has begun shooting for Samuk in Cardiff, marking another genre leap in his long-running association with producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah. Directed by Kanishk Varma, the ambitious survival-action thriller brings together an international creature and stunt team in a bid to mount one of India’s biggest theatrical genre spectacles.

Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, directed by Varma and co-produced by Aashin A Shah, the film reunites Kumar and Shah after their earlier collaborations across genres, including Aankhen, Waqt: The Race Against Time, Namastey London, Singh Is Kinng, Action Replayy and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. With Samuk, the association enters entirely new territory, an alien survival thriller mounted as a large-scale pan-Indian theatrical with global production ambitions. The project has been in development for over two years, with Varma and Shah building a world that combines military realism, survival horror and alien mythology.

What sets Samuk apart is the decision to go old-school with its monster. Academy Award-nominated creature effects designer Alec Gillis, who worked on the Alien and Predator franchises and Alien: Romulus, has designed the film’s central alien. Rather than creating the creature entirely in post-production, the makers are bringing a physical version to set, allowing Kumar and the cast to interact with a tangible creature during the action.

That is only one part of the film’s international action package. British stunt coordinator Luke Tumber, a former Royal Marines Commando whose credits include Mission: Impossible, Venom, Star Wars and No Time To Die, is overseeing the action. With the shoot now commencing in Cardiff, the film’s international creative and technical team is also coming together from the outset, with the key Hollywood and overseas collaborators working alongside Kumar and the Indian crew from the first schedule. His brief is to give the film a grounded, physically demanding action language rather than turn its alien premise into a purely VFX-driven spectacle.

For Kumar, the film also marks another unexpected turn in a career defined by taking on different genres and formats. The actor, who has built a reputation around action over the years, is stepping into the alien-thriller genre for the first time. He had earlier confirmed signing the project, saying he found the subject and script fascinating and was excited to explore a genre new to him.

Varma has cited his fascination with elite security forces and survival films as the starting point for Samuk, with Alien and Predator among the influences. The filmmaker has spent more than two years developing the world with Shah, with the intention of combining the scale of a commercial Indian action film with the tactile creature work associated with classic Hollywood science-fiction horror.

With the shoot now underway, Samuk has moved from development into production, with Kumar leading an international team as the makers begin building their alien world for the big screen. The film is being positioned for a 2027 theatrical release.