Posts Tagged ‘traffic’
Producer-director Rohan Sippy’s gritty, hard-hitting film on the drug racket in Goa, inspired by Hollywood’s Traffic, has finally found a second hero.
The role, which was initially offered to Farhan Akhtar and Emraan Hashmi, has now gone to Rana Daggubati, the Telugu star-on-the-rise, based in Hyderabad. Abhishek Bachchan is playing the lead role in the film.
Rana is a rage in the Telugu film industry after he made his acting debut with the hard-hitting political thriller, Leader. He was chosen to play Abhishek Bachchan’s co-star because he fit the bill.
A source says, “It is the character of a Goan musician. When Rohan saw Rana’s picture, he was stuck by how Goan the Telugu actor looked. The Sippys saw Rana’s film, Leader, and knew he was right. The role is as powerful as Abhishek’s.”
The formalities were completed last week. Incidentally, Rana is not new to the film world. He comes from an illustrious film family. His grandfather is Andhra-based producer D Rama Naidu (who has produced 110 films including superhits in Hindi like Prem Nagar and Tohfa). His father is a distinguished producer Suresh Babu, while his uncle is the popular Telugu star Venkatesh.
Rana will now be another South Indian actor trying his luck in Hindi films after the likes of Kamal Haasan. Rajnikant, Chiranjeevi and Rana’s uncle, Venkatesh (who was launched opposite Karisma Kapoor in Anari by his father D Rama Naidu in 1993).
Rohan Sippy confirmed the casting, “Yes, I have signed Rana for the film I am directing.”
Rohan Sippy’s untitled film takes a lead from a number of headlines about the alarming crime situation in Goa. According to sources, it’s a gritty film about a cop on a drug-busting mission in Goa – quite unlike the Abhishek Bachchan starrer Bluffmaster, which Rohan had earlier directed.
A source said, “Rohan and Abhishek are close friends. When they decided to work together again, they had many options, but they decided to swerve away from drama and romance and instead make a dark film based on real life incidents.” The untitled film about drug trafficking in Goa will be largely shot on the beaches of Goa with Abhishek playing an undercover cop. Sridhar Raghavan known for his realistic newspaper-inspired work is said to be heavily influenced by Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Meanwhile, Abhishek has been asked to study narcotic neurosis and criminal quirks to master the role of the cop. The source added, “Abhishek has earlier played an undercover cop in the Dhoom series, but this is a different territory for him and also for Rohan Sippy. Abhishek is busy collecting as much data as he can get on drug dealing in Goa.” When we asked Rohan Sippy about his forthcoming film, he said, “I’m unfortunately not at liberty to speak about it at the moment other than that we are working on a thriller written by Sridhar Raghavan, starring Abhishek.” |
John crosses the bridge!
Posted on: October 1, 2009
AAKANKSHA NAVAL-SHETYE Times News Network (BOMBAY TIMES; September 30, 2009)
The story goes that John was shooting for Abbas Tyrewala’s 1-800-Love in London and, miraculously, the director managed to get permission to shoot on the iconic Tower Bridge for four nights. Which is astonishing, because many Hollywood films including Bourne Ultimatum and National Treasure were denied permission to shoot there. And even The Mummy, which has the famous chase sequence on the Tower Bridge, was allowed to shoot for only one night.
But for John and Abbas’s unit of seven cameras, the Tower Bridge and also the historical London Bridge — both of which cross the River Thames — were readily made available. The authorities even had the boat traffic on the Thames shut down for one night. An excited John reported, “I was reminded regularly for two months that Tower Bridge would be blocked off, but that night, as the clock struck 9.30 pm, and four police bikes escorted my car on to the middle of the bridge, I was over awed! The grandeur of virtually owning one of London’s greatest land marks — what an experience!” aakanksha.navalshetye@timesgroup.com
Fenil and Bollywood 