Sudha Kongara, who hit the limelight with her riveting sports film Irudhi Suttru that had Madhavan and Ritika Singh in the lead, is all set with its remake in Tollywood. While Venkatesh reprises the character ‘Khadoos’, which was made memorable by Maddy, Ritika will make her debut in Telugu. Sudha speaks to DC in an exclusive about her T’town venture.
“I am tweaking the script a bit to suit Telugu sensibilities. It will be treated as a separate film, and will incorporate things that weren’t in the original, like a song that was composed but not used,” Sudha reveals about her yet-to-be-titled movie.
“We are starting with the Delhi portions during the first week of September and the Chennai episodes will be shot in Vizag,” she adds. The filmmaker tells us that the Babu Bangaram star gave his nod to reprise Maddy’s role even before Irudhi Suttru got released. “I showed it to Venky on January 13, even before it hit the theatres. He was very impressed and said he would do the film in Telugu then and there.”
Did she have apprehensions casting Venkatesh for the Khadoos role? — “Oh not at all! Venkatesh started doing soft romantic subjects in recent years, before which he was doing mostly action hero flicks. He is extremely versatile. I am very confident,” she says.
On Ritika, she says, “She is prepping up and started the process of learning Telugu.” In the original, Ritika is shown as a fan of Dhanush and she would follow his mannerisms and ape him.
The moment you ask which star has replaced Dhanush in Telugu, Sudha becomes tight-lipped. “I can’t reveal it at this point of time. But Ritika is already equipping herself with the mannerisms and body language of that particular star!” she signs off with a smile.
