Last seen playing a tribal character in Kadamban, actor Arya has signed a new project in Studio Green’s production. Rumoured to be a romantic-comedy titled Gajinikanth, the film will be directed by Santosh of Hara Hara Mahadevaki fame and it was officially announced on Wednesday. Sayyeshaa of Vanamagan and Junga fame has been roped in to play the leading lady. The principal shooting is expected to commence from early next year.
It’ll be a busy 2018 for Arya, who will begin work on Sundar C’s magnum opus Sangamithra. He also has a project with good friend Jiiva in his kitty. They are all set to take their bromance to a new level as they gear up to work together for a yet-untitled Tamil project, to be helmed by Jeeva Shankar, whose last film Yaman with Vijay Antony was a successful venture. Apparently, it was Arya who convinced Jiiva and brought him on board as the story has scope for another popular actor. The team had a few options in mind but Arya was hellbent on having Jiiva on board and he succeeded in the endeavour.
A source said that the project will be bankrolled by Lyca Productions and that Arya and Jiiva are indeed part of the film. The pre-production is already underway and the film is tipped to be a romantic-comedy and will feature two heroines who are yet to be finalised. The buzz is that Arya and Jiiva will be pitted against each other and the scenes between them will be high on comedy. Ghibran is most likely to come on board as the composer while the rest of the technical crew is in the process of being locked.
This year, Arya made his Kannada debut with Rajaratha. Director Anup Bhandari told IANS, “Arya plays a crucial role and we are glad he accepted our offer. It’s been a pleasure working with him. I can’t talk too much about his role at the moment because then I’d be giving away the plot.”
Known for directing the critically-acclaimed Kannada thriller Rangitaranga, Bhandari’s film has been simultaneously shot in Telugu as well. The film stars Nirup and Avantika Shetty in the lead. Bhandari said all it took to convince Arya was five minutes of narration. “He really liked my previous film Rangitaranga. Naturally, he was quite excited when we approached him. I narrated the story for about five minutes. He stopped me and asked when I want his dates,” he said.