The Vijay Sethupathi - Trisha starrer 96 opened to packed houses on October 4th and was a massive success with great reviews. In spite of its early Television premier, the film had a full-house run in theaters.
Even while the impact created by director Prem Kumar’s 96 is yet to die down in Kollywood, filmmakers from Telugu and Kannada industries have expressed interest to remake the film in their languages. The Telugu remake rights were lapped up by ace producer Dil Raju and in prominent names are being discussed for the remake.
In Sandalwood, director Preetham Gubbi and actor Ganesh are pairing up once again for the film’s Kannada remake that has been titled 99.
Latest update from the team is that actor Bhavana has been brought on board to reprise Trisha’s role from the original. Trisha had received high praise from Tamil audience for her Janu role in the original.
Set in the backdrop of 1990s, starring Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha, 96 was directed by Prem Kumar, the cinematographer of the hit movie Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kanom.
Actor Bhavana has starred in just one remake throughout her career, Yaare Koogadali, co-starring Puneeth Rajkumar. In an interview to Cinema Express, she had said that everything fell into place for 99.
“I have not attempted remakes in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, either because of date issues or the story not being appealing to me. I have been hesitant to take up remakes, especially reprising a role, which has already been appreciated. I guess everything fell in place for 99, that's the reason I took up the role,” she was quoted saying.
On choosing the film, Bhavana also said, "I know Ganesh and his wife Shilpa, from the time we worked together in Romeo. Since I also know that the combination of Ganesh and director Preetham Gubbi work well, I decided to go ahead with the project. I watched the original film just three days ago, and I was completely impressed."
Bhavana currently awaits the release of Inspector Vikram, a romantic action entertainer directed by Sri Narasimha and produced by Vikyath while Anoop Seelin scored music for this movie.
Bhavana, who has been in the film industry for over a decade and half now, has starred in about 75 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. She has won several awards in her long career including two Kerala State Film Awards.
Her acting debut was with the 2002 release Nammal, which won her the Kerala State Film Award – Special Mention and the Asianet Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. She then went on to win the Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress and Asianet Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Daivanamathil released in the year 2005.
Her last film release was Tagaru in which she got to share the screen space with Shiva Rajkumar.