Maanaadu: Director Venkat Prabhu confirms political thriller with STR will release in summer 2019

Long back, STR expressed his interest to play the iconic Billa character (played by Superstar Rajinikanth in 1980 and Thala Ajith in 2007 & 2012) based on Amitabh Bachchan’s blockbuster Hindi film Don. Director Venkat Prabhu had also casually asked on Twitter whether STR would be interested to team up with him and music composer Yuvan Shankar Raja for Billa 2018, the actor readily agreed. Now, both Venkat Prabhu and STR are all set to join hands for a film but it is not a prequel or sequel to Billa. “At first, we had planned to do a film on my version of Billa but recently met STR and narrated him the outline of another fresh script which he really liked. My film with STR has nothing to do with Billa, it’s going to be a fresh content and something different from my previous films”, said Venkat Prabhu.

Big announcement #STR new film to be directed by @vp_offl has been titled #maanadu , a political thriller of how money and muscle power can get u the top political chair. #strmaanaadu #maanaadu #aVPpolitics #vp9 @sureshkamatchi @Deepanboopathy @Vijayakumar1959 @subbu6panchu pic.twitter.com/gM6vYnQP7y

— Sreedhar Pillai (@sri50) July 10, 2018

“It’s a long pending project to both of us. We have been talking about a possible collaboration for a long time but suddenly STR called me and I narrated his characterization along with the outline of the script. STR felt positive about the rough idea and gave his nod. I’m sure the content will be different for STR who has a massive fan base, his character in the film will definitely excite them”, added the Chennai 600028 director. There were reports saying Sridevi’s daughter Jhanvi Kapoor and Keerthy Suresh are approached to play the romantic interest of STR in the film, but Venkat Prabhu says he has not finalised any actors and technicians. [caption id=“attachment_4688171” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  STR/Image from Twitter.[/caption] “I have to first complete all my pending works in my directorial film Party which is scheduled to release by the end of August. As a team, we are planning to lock the final version of the film by the first week of August”, said Venkat Prabhu. Talking about the negative image of STR saying that the actor wouldn’t come to the sets on time, Venkat Prabhu said: “I don’t believe in those reports. STR and I have been traveling like brothers. As a team, I think we will be able to pull it off and release our film for Summer 2019”. The yet-untitled STR-Venkat Prabhu will be produced by Suresh Kamatchi. Besides his directorial films, Venkat Prabhu is also getting ready with his production venture RK Nagar and he is also joining hands with Vikram Vedha distribution house Trident Arts to produce series of Tamil films. STR has recently completed the shooting of Mani Ratnam’s multistarrer Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. The actor would soon start dubbing for the film and join the sets of Venkat Prabhu film in the third quarter of 2018. Other than the Venkat Prabhu film, STR is also in talks with Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru director Karthick Naren for a film which is likely to be produced by legendary production house Vijaya Productions known for their collaborations with MGR, Rajinikanth, Ajith and Vijay. Gautham Menon has also recently confirmed that STR will be seen playing one of the four protagonists in the sequel of Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaya, so, after Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, the actor has confirmed three promising projects.