Etcetera: Playing the lead, Akshara’s aim

A still from Agadam

When director Vishnu Vardhan was looking for an actress who could make her presence felt in a role in

Arrambam , he had no hesitation in offering it to Akshara Gowda. Born in Bangalore, Akshara has appeared in several commercials. Her foray into films was through director Priyadarshan’s

Rangrezz, the Hindi remake of

Nadodigal . “I have also done a festival film

The Shades of Grey (

Chitkabrey ) which was showcased at the Goa International Film Festival. But it is my role in

Arrambam that is the most gratifying. I am featured in the song ‘Stylish Tamizhachi’ and in a few scenes where I interact with Ajith Kumar, Arya and Mahesh. As for the future, I am keen on doing lead roles and am at present reading through some scripts,” says Akshara.

No mean achievement

Director Mohammed Issack’s directorial debut Agadam, which won a Guinness World Record notification for having been shot in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 30 seconds from start to finish without any cuts or retakes, releases on November 15. Agadam features Baskar, Seenu Iyer, Thamizh, Kalaisekaran, Saravana Balaji, Sri Priyanka, Anisha and Master Ajay. “Cinematographer E. J. Nauzhad shot the entire film with a hand-held camera. An edge-of-the-seat thriller, Agadam has a strong social message and has been given a U/A certificate. It’s noteworthy that Assist World Records, an organisation which motivates and supports young talent, has felicitated the Agadam team for its achievement,” says Issack. “While the film has been remade in Telugu, there are plans to do so in Kannada and Hindi too.”

Mahaabali

team heads to Kerala

The big-budget period action film Mahaabali being made in Tamil and Telugu has completed a lengthy schedule in Hyderabad and the entire unit is moving to Kerala for another long stint. Director S. S. Rajamouli is quite content with the scenes he has canned with Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Rana Daggubati, Ramya Krishnan, Satyaraj and Nasser. Being a mammoth production, Rajamouli expects to release the film in early 2015. The Telugu version is titled Baahubali.