Vikram’s period drama Mahavir Karna to start shoot from October; budget expected to touch Rs 300 cr

This is going to be a very exciting year for Tamil star Vikram, who currently has three highly anticipated projects in his kitty. Having begun the year on a positive note with his Pongal release Sketch, he’s looking forward to the release of Hari’s Saamy Square, a sequel to his own 2004 blockbuster Saamy and Gautham Vasudev Menon’s international spy thriller Dhruva Natchathiram. [caption id=“attachment_4306443” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Vikram at the success meet of Sketch.[/caption] Vikram also has a film with Kamal Haasan’s production, Raaj Kamal Films. To be directed by Rajesh Selva, the yet-untitled thriller is likely to roll soon. However, the most exciting Vikram starrer this year has to be R.S Vimal’s Mahavir Karna, which has been confirmed to start rolling from October onwards. The film is expected to be made on a budget of Rs 300 crore. “The principal shooting begins in Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City from October. Predominant portions of the film will be shot in Hyderabad and Jodhpur. Some crucial portion will also be shot in Canada. Originally, the film was planned to be shot in Malayalam. But the makers have decided to release in Tamil and Hindi as well as they’re planning to rope in pan-Indian actors,” a source from the film’s unit told Firstpost. Rumour has it that the film will also be dubbed in over ten languages. “Whether dub the film in other languages apart from the three main ones will be decided much later. The team hopes to release the film by December 2019.” Also read: Vikram confirms doing a Rs 300 cr multilingual titled Mahavir Karna; film will release on Christmas 2019 The film was originally planned with Malayalam superstar Prithviraj. In a chat with this writer last year, Prithviraj said he was thrilled about this project. “If everything goes well and we manage to pull it off, it’s going to be a very big film. I’m really excited as this attempt will push new boundaries in Malayalam filmdom. The pre-production process of the film is going to be unlike any Malayalam film in terms of the amount of detailing required in the production. We know the actual shooting will take shorter time than what was spent on the pre-production. However, I’m not sure when we plan to commence filming.” In a shocking turn of events, Prithviraj walked out of the project late last year. The reasons for his exit still remain unknown. Following his sudden exit, the makers roped in Vikram to play the titular role and also brought on board an international company United Film Company, New York to fund the project so that it can be made on an international scale. Best known for directing the critically-acclaimed Malayalam drama Ennu Ninte Moideen, Vimal told Firstpost that the film was originally planned on a very small scale. “After the interest of the producer, we decided to make the film on a lavish budget. Besides Vikram, we plan to rope in actors from Bollywood and Hollywood as well. The entire cast and crew will be revealed soon.” Vimal also confirmed that Vikram will sport a very different look and will also bulk up for the project. “With Mahabharata as the central theme, we hope to make the film internationally appealing. The pre-production work has already been going on for a few months now.” Last week, Vimal visited the Sabarimala shrine with the script of Mahavir Karna. He prayed before the deity and sought blessings for the movie. In an earlier interview, he had said that he rewrote the script of Mahavir Karna eight times in the last couple of years.