The shooting of the Asuran Telugu remake Naarappa went on the floors earlier this year. Tollywood star Venkatesh Daggubati is all set to play Dhanush’s role from the original. The team wrapped up shooting a major portion of the film in Rayalaseema and other locations before the lockdown and then the shooting came to a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic. The latest update is that the project will resume shooting from October or November with proper sanitation and safety precautions as the makers have to can big action sequences with minimum 150 members on the sets and that cannot happen with the latest regulations in place. The team plans to complete it in one single schedule.
Naarappa, a remake of the hit Tamil film Asuran which was based on the novel Vekkai by Poomani, is directed by Srikanth Addala. Reports say that the film might be loosely based on the Karamchedu massacre which happened in 1985, when a large group of Kamma landlords attacked a Dalit colony resulted in the killing of six Dalits and grievous injuries to 20 more.
Initially, it was rumoured that Shriya Saran was likely to play Manju Warrier’s role from the original. But the latest is that the makers are planning to rope in Priyamani for the role.
Mani Sharma will be composing the music for the film while Shyam K Naidu will handle the cinematography and Marthand K Venkatesh will edit. Peter Hein has been roped in for stunts. The film is bankrolled by Suresh Babu and the original producer Kalaipuli S Thanu under Suresh Productions and V Creations, respectively. The film also stars Prakash Raj, Karthik Rathnam, Murali Sharma and Sampath Raj in crucial roles.
Venkatesh’s recent release F2: Fun and Frustration was a mega-hit, following which a sequel to the film was announced. Venkatesh and Varun Tej, who played the lead roles in F2, have been retained for the sequel as well which will be directed by Anil Ravipudi. The director is in the process of roping in another actor to join the stars.
Meanwhile, Venkatesh is also set to collaborate with director VV Vinayak for an upcoming film. Nallamalapu Bujji will bankroll this film under his banner Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Productions.
Asuran was directed by award-winning director Vetrimaaran. It had Dhanush playing the lead role with Malayalam actor Manju Warrier making her debut in the Tamil film industry as the female lead. The technical crew of Asuran included GV Prakash Kumar for music, Velraj for cinematography and Vivek Harshan for editing. The star cast also had director Balaji Shaktivel playing the baddie. The film became the first of Dhanush’s films that touched the Rs 100 crore mark.
(Content provided by Digital Native)