CHENNAI: After the release of ‘Billa’ casting Ajith, Nayanthara and Namitha in 2007, proposals for ‘Billa 2’ were nevertheless on the cards. Ajith who is looking forward to the release of ‘Mankatha’ in May is now committed to ‘Billa 2’ as well. But ‘Billa 2’ is not a sequel to ‘Billa’, it’s a prequel instead, wherein the film will focus on the journey of how David became Billa. It is set to go on the floors in early April 2011 and is being envisaged for a release between December 2011 and February 2012.
IN Entertainment (India) Limited (INE), part of the Hinduja Group, has tied up with Chennai based Wide Angle Creations led by Suresh Balaje and George Pius to produce the film which is helmed by ace director, Vishnuvardhan.
Soumik Sen, who heads development at INE, has worked on the screenplay along with Vishnuvardhan and the same is being developed into Tamil dialogue draft presently.
Yuvan Shanker Raja (Music Director) and Nirav Shah (Director of Photography), who worked on ‘Billa’ (2007) are likely to be associated with ‘Billa 2’ as well.
Ajith , putting an end to all speculation around the film, says “‘Billa 2’ is my next film and we start filming in early April 2011. Prequel to ‘Billa’ is an exciting premise and I am delighted to be working with close friends, Suresh Balaje and Vishnu and am glad that we have a strong company like INE backing this project.”
Confirming that ‘Billa 2’ is indeed his next film to mount in early April 2011, ace director Vishnuvardhan says, “‘Billa 2’ is a tremendously powerful idea and we have finalised a screenplay which matches the intensity of the underlying idea. We are working towards putting together the winning team, which worked on the Ajith starrer ‘Billa’ in 2007 and will leave no stone unturned to make ‘Billa 2’ a much bigger film than ‘Billa’.”