Actor Sumanth Shailendra is all ready for his sixth project Cherry which follows on the heels of his Kannada remake of the Telugu film, Ala Modalaindi directed Sadhu Kokila. The film which will go on floors tomorrow is named after the central character played by Sumanth.
The young actor is currently taking on more and more romantic films because he feels that it suits his personality and the audience also appreciates him in roles where he plays a lover boy. “My age allows me to play these characters in a convincing manner and so I take up roles of a young boy falling in love and going through the various stages of courtship. Cherry has a simple love story at its centre and will be presented in a grand manner with a good screenplay and stylised songs and fights. I have sat through the discussion around the film and I am confident that people will enjoy every bit of the film, especially its dialogues,” he says.
Bhadravathi Jayaram, previously an associate to R Chandru, will be debuting as an independent director with this film which will be produced by Manjunath Babu. Malayalam actress Raksha Marina has been roped in to play the female lead.
“The recently-revealed first look of the film was appreciated by many,” says the actor.
Apart from these lighthearted romantic films Suman is looking forward to the release of his recently concluded film Bettanagere. This film directed by Mohan Gowda is a departure from his usual style and is based on the true life story of two brothers from Bettanagere called Seena and Shankar. Apart from Suman, the film also stars Akshay and cricketer Vinod Kambli in an important role.
“Bettanagere has a gritty and realistic subject about a real-life rowdy who has several cases of murder registered against him. However, it is also a story with mass appeal. The shooting is complete and we are hopeful that the film will release in April. Though we crossed many hurdles while the film was being made, there seems to be a problem with the title and the names Seena and Shankara. According to latest court order, there should be no mention of real names or titles that are considered controversial for the silver screen. The directors and producers are discussing the issue and hoping to resolve it without changing the title as a different name will not have the same impact. This is especially important for us as we have taken great risks while shooting because everything was done in the actual locations. We even had a couple of scenes shot inside Vidhana Soudha, for which we had to struggle to get permission. So for the sake of authenticity, it will be best if we could retain the original title. The makers are trying to make this happen and I hope they succeed,” he says.