Ever since it was announced that director Bala’s Varmaa was dropped by the film’s production house just weeks before its release, people from the industry and fans have been eager to know who would be replacing the award-winning director. The production house had announced that they would remake the entire film from the beginning with Dhruv in the lead.
The announcement finally came on Tuesday, a little over a week after the initial news. The film itself has been renamed as Adithya Varma and a first look poster featuring Dhruv has been released. Dispelling rumours that director Gautham Menon has been roped in to direct the film, the makers have now announced that debut director Gireesaaya who had worked as assistant director in the Telugu original will be helming this project.
@proyuvraaj @sooriaruna @E4Emovies Dhruv Banita Sandhu Priya Anand pic.twitter.com/IpqwaJKrRe
— MUKESH RATILAL MEHTA (@e4echennai) February 19, 2019
The poster also announced that music composer Radhan who has worked in both Tamil and Telugu films will be taking care of its music.
The team has further announced that actor Priya Anand would be a part of this film, probably as a replacement to Raiza who was a part of Bala’s version.
On February 7, an official release from E4 entertainment read, “We at E4 Entertainment are not happy with the final version handed over to us and due to various creative and other differences, we have decided not to release this version.”
While they had announced that the film would be reshot with Dhruv, the makers have replaced Megha Chowdhury with Banita Sandhu, who will also be making her Tamil debut. Banita made her film debut with Shoojit Sircar’s October that released last year.
They had also recently announced that cinematographer Ravi K Chandran would handle the film’s cinematography, marking his return to Tamil cinema after a gap of almost 8 years. His last was Suriya’s 7aam Arrivu that released in 2011.
A few days after the statement from E4 Entertainment, director Bala too had released a clarification form his side. In it, he had stated that he was compelled to speak up “due to the false statement from the producer of Varmaa”.
“In order to safeguard creative freedom, it was my own decision to relieve myself from this project. Please find the agreement initiated by my with the producer on January 22, 2019, along with this,” he wrote.
Adithya Varma is the Tamil remake of the hit Telugu film Arjun Reddy that was produced by Pranay Reddy Vanga and directed by Sandeep Vanga. Starring Vijay Deverakonda and Shalini Pandey, the film went on to rake gold at the box office soon after its release.