Kannada releases having been doing well at the box office. And given the current trends, the makers of Kali have collectively decided to put the period film on the back-burner and tackle a commercial story instead.
Kali, the much hyped film starring Shivarajkumar and Sudeep, had a grand launch in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and JD (S) president Kumaraswamy, among other celebrities. Confirming the change in plans, producer CR Manohar shares the reasons.
“Initially, when Prem had come to me, he had narrated a fantastic story that had all commercial elements. But later, with stars like Shivarajkumar and Sudeep, he wanted to do a period film. Now we realise that such a film will take time and it is not feasible to accommodate those many dates for one film. So we came together and decided to work on another subject,” he says.
Prem has already started preparing to go on floors for his next movie, and according to Manohar, the untitled film will be launched on Varamahalakshmi day.
According to Manohar, this is will be one of Jogi from Prem. “As we progressed with the Kali script, we realised, it a subject which can be done anybody. Since we had two mass heroes, it was better to give something that will be liked by the audience. This subject is commercial and tested.”
The untitled film will be made in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu and, in all probability, Nagarjuna will be reprising Shivarajkumar in the latter two languages. “We are in talks with Nagarjuna and hopefully he will be roped in. An official announcement will be made after the formalities are done. He will be playing the lead along with Sudeep,” says Manohar.