Raana

At a hurriedly-convened press meet in the city on Superstar Rajinikanth’s much-anticipated flick ‘Rana’, the director of the movie K.S. Ravikumar, and the daughter of the Superstar, Soundarya Ashwin, who is also technical director of the film, clarified some of the speculative reports that have been appearing in the media of late.

They made it clear that that the action-packed trilingual has a fresh script and is not a rip-off of ‘Sultan the Warrior’, the earlier animated film of the actor, as assumed by a section of the media.

“The story of this historical film, set in the 17th century, is the brainchild of the Superstar and has nothing to do with ‘Sultan’…That film is totally directed by Soundarya and she has plans to complete it later,” he said.

Rubbishing reports about Bollywood actress Rekha, who is said to have demanded Rs.4 crore to play opposite Rajini and that KSR could not cast her, he said, “The rumours are baseless. I have never spoken to Rekha or for that matter Hema Malini for ‘Rana’. As of now, only Deepika Padukone has been signed.”

However, the ‘Muthu’ director agreed that since ‘Rana’ is a very big film and Rajini is playing a triple role, they have to speak to many other stars. “We are still talking to Vidya Balan, but nothing is finalised. Talks with Ileana too have been initiated. But the problem at the moment is that Rajini sir and I are fine-tuning the script even now. When it reaches its final shape, if any of these characters are reduced to minuscule figures, then we cannot justify casting big actresses like Vidya Balan.”

He also did not rule out the possibility of big actors who will share screen space with Rajinikanth. On punch lines for Rajini he said, “My films are always filled with contemporary dialogues. Rana is no different.”

The movie, produced by Eros International, has A.R. Rahman composing the music and Ratnavel behind the camera and shooting is likely to commence around the last week of April.