Iconic actor Kamal Haasan will play a dual role —an eighth century folk/drama artiste and a 21 century cinema superstar — in his next film Uttama Villain , its producers revealed on Saturday.
In a press release that set the social networks abuzz, the film makers revealed that Kamal would play ‘Uttaman’, an artiste, and also don the role of ‘Manoranjan’, a film superstar.
Revealing a surprise, the Uttama Villain camp said veteran director K. Balachander, whom Kamal Haasan has repeatedly mentioned in several public appearances as being his mentor, would play a role as Uttaman’s mentor in the film.
Kamal has also noted in several interviews, Mr. Balachander’s histrionic abilities and a desire to make him face the camera. (Mr. Balachander has already acted in a few films and has appeared in television serials.)
In another casting coup, Uttama Villain will feature veteran director K. Vishwanath, who has directed Kamal Haasan in several classics in Telugu cinema, as Uttaman’s father-in-law, and actress Oorvashi as Uttaman’s wife.
Several fans have rejoiced the casting on social networks Twitter and Facebook, recalling the Kamal–Oorvashi comedy scenes from the inimitable ‘Micheal Madana Kama Rajan’.
Other actors who will feature in the film include Jayaram, Nasser, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Parvathi Menon and M.S. Baskar. The story and screenplay has been written by Kamal Haasan and the film will be directed by Ramesh Aravind.
Young music director Ghibran will score the music. Cinematography is by Shyam Dutt and editing by Vijay Shankar.
The film’s director Ramesh Aravind had tweeted on March 3 that the film’s shooting had started and was proceeding briskly. Actor Jayaram (@UrsJayaramActor) had, on March 13, tweeted two photographs from the shooting spot, featuring him, Kamal Haasan and Ramesh Aravind.
