Director Bala’s upcoming film Varma, which is the remake of the blockbuster Telugu movie Arjun Reddy, went on the floors and the shooting has recommenced recently after a short break.
Announced last November, the regular shooting of the film began in Kathmandu last month. The current schedule is happening in Chennai where key sequences are to be shot. Expectations are high on this film as it will mark the debut of Vikram’s son Dhruv in the Tamil film industry.
It may be mentioned here that he will be reprising the role done by Vijay Devarakonda in the original. On the film’s progress, we hear that the director is canning shots involving Dhruv and his buddies and this will go on for the next few days. Interestingly, Bala is yet to sign up a leading lady to pair up with Dhruv in this remake and the search is still on.
Bala, the award winning director, has several critically acclaimed movies to his credit till date but he hasn’t made a single remake. Varma is his first attempt in remaking a film and reports say that he took up the project for Vikram who was keen on launching his son with a Bala directorial.
Varma is bankrolled by Mukesh Mehta under his banner E4 Entertainments, the producers of popular Malayalam films such as Ezra and Godha. While Varma is based on Arjun Reddy which was written and directed by Sandeep Vanga, the dialogues for the Tamil version have been penned by Raju Murugan. Arjun Reddy, one of the biggest hits in the Telugu film industry last year, was made on a budget of Rs. 5 crores but it went on to rake in Rs. 65 crores at the box office. Its immense success at the box office and critical acclaim prompted several filmmakers to vie for its remake rights but eventually it went to Bala.
The original version starred Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey in the lead roles with Pranay Reddy Vanga producing the venture under this banner Bhadrakali Pictures.
(Content provided by Digital Native)