This year seems to have started well for Nanda Kishore. The director, busy scheduling song shoots for his project Tiger with Pradeep, will be helming the remake of Oh My God in Kannada, featuring Sudeep and Upendra from February. His next big film for the year will be with Puneeth Rajkumar, a film with which producer A M Rathnam will foray into the Kannada film industry. Rathnam is known for his works in Telugu and Tamil.
The team plans to start work in March. The film is supposed to be inspired by Vedalam, a 2015 Tamil hit, starring Ajith and directed by Siva.
Nanda Kishore confirms the news: “Yes, I will be working with Puneeth Rajkumar for a film produced by A M Rathnam. Everything has been agreed upon verbally, and I am waiting for an official announcement from the producer. He comes back from Shabarimalai today.”
Ask Kishore why he chose a subject like Vedalam for Puneeth, he says, “With the current trend of films, he is taking up, this sort of subject will suit him. An action-packed yet sentimental film like
Vedalam will be something different for the actor too.”
As Puneeth takes on Ajith’s role, Nanda Kishore says the emotions of the original, not the attitude, will be translated into the remake.
“Every actor has a different attitude. The attitude Aamir carried in Ghajini was different from Suriya’s in the Tamil original. How we capture the emotions is very important.”
Though the director is soon coming out with an original script in Tiger..., Nanda Kishore is often picked up for projects tried and tested in other languages.
“But no matter what subject and where it comes from, I give it a fresh feel. Whenever we sit and watch a film of any other language, I only think of how I would have helmed a story like this. That gives me the edge,” he says.
He is happy to have got an opportunity to work with a big Kannada star. “I am getting to work with Dr Rajkumar’s family, and I consider it an honour,” he says.
That’s not all. After this, Nanda Kishore has committed to work with actor Dhruva. “I have projects with Sriimurali. I will also be working with Sharan, for which the scrpt needs to be finalised,” he says.