Samantha Akkineni to star in Tamil remake of U-Turn; film to kick off in January 2018

Director Pawan Kumar’s critically-acclaimed Kannada film U-Turn, that featured Shraddha Srinath in the lead role, was one of the best films to come out of the southern film industry last year. Following the film’s wide acclaim and fabulous box-office reception, it was announced that Samantha Akkineni will feature in its Tamil and Telugu remake. Months after the first major announcement, it has finally been confirmed that the project will roll from January 2018. [caption id=“attachment_4250737” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Samantha Akkineni (left); Poster of the Kannada film U-Turn. Images via Facebook[/caption] U-Turn follows the life of an intern journalist, played by Shraddha, who tries to uncover the mystery behind the deaths of motorists who break a traffic rule on a particular flyover in Bengaluru. “The pre-production work has been going on for the last few months. The principal shooting will commence from the third week of January next year. As of now, the remake is only happening in Tamil. The makers are yet to take a call on to shoot the film simultaneously in Telugu. The film will be wrapped up in three schedules,” a source from the film’s unit told Firstpost. Pawan, who helmed the original, will direct the remake as well and it’ll mark his foray into Tamil filmdom. The rest of the cast and crew are yet to be finalised. Not long ago, rumours made the rounds that Nithya Menen had replaced Samantha in the project. The source clarified by putting these reports to rest. “Sam has been on board from the beginning. In fact, it was her idea to remake the project after she was mighty impressed with the film. She had watched the film in a special screening in Bengaluru last year. Nithya was never in the picture,” the source said. It’ll be a busy 2018 for Samantha who’ll have multiple releases. Her first major release will be Vishal-starrer Irumbu Thirai, slated to release during Pongal. She also has Ram Charan’s Rangasthalam, Vijay Sethupathi’s Super Deluxe, the Savitri biopic Mahanati and Sivakarthikeyan-Ponram yet-untitled Tamil flick.