Mumbai, Apr 17 (IANS): Actor Prateik Babbar has been roped in to essay the antagonist in filmmaker A.R. Murugadoss' thriller "Darbar", which stars superstar Rajinikanth.

"It is such a dream come true to have bagged this project in such little time. This year is looking very positive for me and Sanya (his wife) has been such a great influence on my life professionally and personally," Prateik said in a statement.

"I can't wait to commence shooting with Rajinikanth sir and Murugadoss sir this week and create some magic," added the actor, who will shoot in Mumbai and Tamil Nadu.

The film marks Rajinikanth's return to playing a police officer after 25 years. He was last seen playing a police officer on-screen in the 1992 Tamil film "Pandian". His other police officer role includes Alex Pandian from "Moondru Mugam", which released in 1982.

Lyca Productions is producing "Darbar". Nayanthara has been roped in to play the leading lady in the film.

After working with Rajinikanth in "Chandramukhi" and also briefly in "Kuselan", this is the third time Nayanthara has teamed up with the 68-year-old star.

Popular lensman Santosh Sivan will crank the camera while Anirudh Ravichander will compose the music. Sreekar Prasad will take care of editing. The film will simultaneously release in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. It is expected to release in 2020.

Apart from the film, Prateik has a series of web series which will be releasing this year apart from Nitesh Tiwari's "Chhichhore", Mahesh Manjrekar's "Power" and Anubhav Sinha's "Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui Hai".