Though director Vijay Kiran’s debut was to be a high budget trilingual project in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu, starring Mithun Chakraborty’s son Mahaakshay Chakraborty, Shreyas Talpade, Pia Bajpai and Srinagar Kitty, producer issues delayed the venture. But Vijay has kept himself busy and his first film as a director will be Ramleela, a remake of last year’s Telugu hit, Loukyam.
Though Vijay gives complete credit to the makers of the original, he asserts that Ramleela has drawn some strands from Loukyam, but has otherwise been woven from scratch.
“I have worked in various capacities in the film industry – as a technician and a co-producer for all films that Soundarya Jagadish produced,” he says. “When it came to my directorial debut, we planned a big budget 3D multilingual project, featuring his son Snehith,” he adds. But looking out for popular heroes in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada was taking time.
Meanwhile, the director-producer duo both watched Loukyam and thought that the entertainer should be brought to the Kannada audience. “Though we took up the rights, we have added nativity and have adopted it to suit out own ++++method, characters, locations and concept,” he stresses.
The film brings in a fresh pair – Chiranjeevi Sarja and Amulya. “Chiru has never tried an out-and-out entertainer like Ramleela before. We took advantage of Amulya’s makeover, and she fits the bill for the rustic character she plays.”
With Soundarya Jagadish investing around Rs 5 to Rs 6 crore, the film turned out a colourful one to make for the director. “Every character, including the comedians, senior actor Urvashi, Sadhu Kokila, Ravi Shankar Gowda, Shobhraj, has got a makeover, unlike in the Telugu film,” he says. “We have shot a few songs in Kazbegi, Gudauri, Tbilisi and Batumi in Georgia, with some amazing landscapes. We have been appreciated by stars like Shivarajkumar, Darshan, Ganesh and Dhurva Sarja for them. All credit goes to the producer or his large-hearted investment.” Ramleela will be the only Kannada release this Deepavali, he adds.
His trilingual will hit theatres in 2016, he says. “The film, initially produced by Annaji Nagaraj, has now been taken over by Thippeswamy, a relative of politician Renukacharya. We just have to complete a song shoot, and then the post-production,” Vijay says.