The last time director Mani Ratnam did a film with a star-studded ensemble cast was 14 years ago — Aaytha Ezhuthu. His next film, announced on Friday, stars a similar bevy of artistes. The poster for the Mani Ratnam’s next movie, titled Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, was released on Twitter on Friday, but it is the star-studded cast that has gotten everyone talking. The movie’s poster has four lead actors — Arvind Swamy, Silambarasan, Arun Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi.
Madras Talkies, Mani Ratnam’s production house and the co-producers for this film, gave out the rest of the list — Jyothika, Jayasudha, Prakash Raj, Thiyagarajan, Aditi Rao Hydari, model Dayana Erappa and Mansoor Ali Khan among others are also part of the film.
It was long rumoured that Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil would be working on Mani Ratnam’s next, but according to media reports, Arun Vijay seems to have replaced him. Similarly, media reports also said Simbu was brought in place of Telugu actor Nani who reportedly had had other commitments. Several reports added that Vijay Sethupathi would be playing a cop in the film.
Actor Aditi Rao Hydari had just recently confirmed that she would be working with the ace director. “The positive reviews for Padmaavat were totally unexpected since I thought I didn’t have much to do. Now I am again doing a film with Mani Ratnam, just a year after Kaatru Veliyidai,” she told IANS and added that this film would not be anything like Kaatru Veliyidai.
This film, like Aaytha Ezhuthu, is also a bilingual. Nawab is the Telugu title. Music for the film will be by A.R. Rahman, while Vairamuthu will be handling the lyrics. National award winning cinematographer Santosh Sivan is also on- board.
The movie is co-produced by Lyca Productions and is also co-written by Mani Ratnam and Siva Ananth. Director Bejoy Nambiar is on-board as a creative producer.
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam is set to begin shooting on February 12.
