Director Harish Shankar has announced that he is doing the remake of Jigarthanda in Telugu. Varun Tej is playing one of the lead actors and the rest of the cast is to be announced.
According to a source, Harish did not approach Varun Tej first as he approached two actors before him. “Harish wants to remake the Tamil hit film that stars Siddharth and he first approached Ravi Teja when he was shooting Amar Akbar Anthony. Ravi showed interest in doing it and asked Harish to wait till he had completed the film,” says a source. Harish too agreed. But when Amar Akbar Anthony bombed at the box-office, Harish didn’t go back to Ravi Teja.
“Harish Shankar then approached Sai Dharam Tej for the same and even a photo shoot was done with different get-ups. Sai too liked it and agreed to do the film after he completed two projects in hand,” said the source, adding, Harish assured him that he would come back to him.
Then, without telling Sai, the director approached Varun Tej and asked him whether he was interested in doing the remake. Varun agreed to play the role, though it is a negative one, and the director also roped in Naga Shaurya for the lead character.
Once the news was out, both Sai and Ravi Teja were upset with Harish Shankar. He called to pacify Sai Dharam Tej, but the latter refused to take the call, and showed no interest in meeting him. “SDT did not feel bad about not doing the project, but was disappointed the way in which the director finalised his cousin Varun Tej for the role without saying a word to him,” the source said.
