National award-winning Hindi film Andha Dhun, directed by Sriram Raghavan, is being remade in three South Indian languages – Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. While Nithiin’s spearheading the Telugu remake that’s to release this June, the Malayalam version directed by cinematographer Ravi K Chandran featuring Prithviraj is expected to hit theatres by May. The Tamil version starring Jeans fame Prashanth (whose shoot commenced today) will see the hero’s father and producer Thiagarajan taking over the reins as a director.
Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana actor Siddharth was the frontrunner to lead the Tamil remake, but the film underwent regular casting changes and several directors walked out of the remake at the last minute. The role finally went to Prashanth, who has lost his mojo over the previous decade and a half. Needless to say, the actor has pinned his hopes on the musical thriller to revive his career. The Tamil remake had begun its shooting earlier today.
The three directors for all the remakes – Merlapaka Gandhi, Ravi K Chandran and Thiagarajan – are unlikely choices and it’ll be interesting to see if they’ll be able to lend a unique spin to the intricately scripted thriller. Even the casting across all these versions remains relatively unconventional. The Telugu remake has Tamannaah reprising the role that Tabu had played in the original, while Mamta Mohandas and Simran will be playing the same role in Malayalam and Telugu respectively. Among Nithiin, Prithviraj and Prashanth, the first two names will be favourites to pull off the film well.