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Ondraga
Directed by	Gautham Menon
Produced by	Gautham Menon
Cinematography	Dan Macarthur
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Production company	Photon Kathaas
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Ondraga is an upcoming Tamil coming-of-age film produced, written and directed by Gautham Menon.

Cast

• Prithviraj

Production

In October 2015, Gautham Menon began planning a multilingual production to be shot in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, which would feature four actors in leading roles. The film was reported to revolve around the lives of four friends from the four Southern Indian states, who meet at a wedding after many years, and then decide to take a roadtrip in the United States. Menon initially discussed making the project with STR, Allu Arjun, Fahadh Faasil and Puneet Rajkumar, with the latter also keen to produce the Kannada version of the film. Over the following months, Prithviraj agreed to portray the Malayali character in the film ahead of Fahadh Faasil, and accepted the offer despite Menon's initial doubts about whether the actor would feature in a multi-starrer project. Likewise, Naga Chaitanya also was reported to have replaced Allu Arjun as the Telugu character in the film.

Menon continued to develop the script wile finishing the productions of Achcham Yenbadhu Madamaiyada (2016) and Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2018). By June 2016, Menon revealed that the film would be titled Ondraaga and that it would shot in the United States over a seventy day schedule. He revealed that Sai Dharam Tej had joined the cast replacing Naga Chaitanya, while the Tamil character was yet to be finalised. He also suggested that actresses Anushka Shetty and Tamannaah would form a part of the cast, and that an advance payment was made to them. Soon after, Jayam Ravi held discussions about playing the Tamil character, while actress Manjima Mohan was also considered for a role. In an interview in November 2016, Menon stated that the character of Karthik from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa would be retained in Ondraaga, with the plot taking off eight years after the release of the previous film. He stated Karthik's character had changed his concept of women and would appear as a playboy in the new project, while the character of Jessie Thekekuttu would also feature in the film. Menon revealed that A. R. Rahman would compose music for the project, and likened the mood of the film to the Hindi films, Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011). He also added that he was hopeful that STR would agree to work in the film and reprise the role of Karthik.

Production on the film was postponed as the makers were unable to finalise the actors to play the Tamil and Telugu characters, while Menon also began work on Dhruva Natchathiram (2018) with Vikram. In March 2017, Prithviraj called the film a "very modern take on friendship and self-discovery", while revealing that the script was complete and production would possibly begin by the end of 2017. In early 2018, following a brief period where Menon prioritised his other productions, he signed on Madhavan to portray the Tamil character of Karthik after STR had turned down the offer. Tovino Thomas was also signed to replace Prithviraj as the Malayalam character.

ISRO biopic

The project was first reported by R. Madhavan in April 2017, when he confirmed that he was set to appear in a biopic featuring the "extraordinary story of an unsung hero", who was "neither an actor or a sportsman". He called the project his "biggest film ever" and stated that he had been "working on this for the past four years" and the film was close to being finalised. More information was revealed by Madhavan in a televised interview with anchor Dhivyadharshini on Star Vijay during July 2017, where he stated that his next film would be on rocket science and that he had begun research in the area. In late October 2017, the media reported that pre-production works on a biopic of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Nambi Narayanan was underway and that it would be a joint production of Hollywood and Indian film studios. The makers of Alfonso Cuarón's science fiction film Gravity (2013) were stated to be involved in the project, while it was also reported that the film would take inspiration from Narayanan's autobiography Ormakalude Brahmanapadam (2017). The following month, Madhavan confirmed that pre-production was underway and that he would portray Narayanan from the ages of 27 to 75. He also revealed that he was gaining weight to film the scenes featuring the older version of Narayanan first, after taking advice from Aamir Khan. Madhavan also announced that he would write the film's screenplay and be one of the producers of the project. As of November 2017, the film's director was yet to be confirmed, with S. S. Rajamouli and Anant Mahadevan in negotiations to work on the project. In January 2018, it was reported that Gautham Menon was approached to direct the film in the English, Hindi and Tamil languages.

Sargunam

Following the success of Irudhi Suttru (2016), R. Madhavan signed several new Tamil film projects, ending his four year sabbatical from the industry. He agreed in principal to work on films including Pushkar–Gayathri's Vikram Vedha (2017), A. L. Vijay's Charlie and films by Sangeeth Sivan, Karu Pazhaniappan and A. Sarkunam in quick succession, with the latter being first reported in July 2016. Though the project failed to take off as stated in 2016, Madhavan underwent physical training for his role and Sarkunam signed on Jackie Shroff to be a part of the film in October 2016. In November 2016, Sarkunam denied that he had postponed the project to work on a sequel to Kalavani (2010) and that he was still working on the pre-production of the film with Madhavan. Sarkunam added that the film would be a bilingual film shot in Tamil and Hindi, and that Madhavan would write the dialogues in the Hindi version of the film. He also stated that the film would be an action adventure film set in the jungle, with Madhavan portraying a hunter. Featuring music by Ghibran and jointly produced by Common Man Productions and Sarkunam's Sarkunam Cinemaz, the director announced plans of completing the shoot in Thailand, Mongolia and Tajikistan during 2017.

Madhavan's commitments to Vikram Vedha, the web series Breathe (2018) and the delay of the shoot of Chanda Mama Door Ke (2019), meant that the film was unable to take off in 2017, though Madhavan confirmed at regular intervals that he was still attached to Sarkunam's film. He added that he was keen to do the film to appeal to kids and at the request of his son Vedaant, who wanted to see his father appear in a film alongside animals. In January 2018, the makers revealed that the film would begin shoot from June 2018 and that cinematographer Vetri and stunt choreographer Greg Burridge had joined the crew. Sarkunam added that Burridge was selected as a result of his experience of working with animals, and that his presence was necessary as the film would feature a golden eagle, a tiger and monkeys, which were being trained in Thailand. It was also stated that ninety per cent of the film would be shot in the forests of Thailand, Ladakh, West Bengal and Sathyamangalam, which would depict the forest region of Sathyamangalam in the Tamil version and a forest in Maharashtra in the Hindi version.

DQ Travel film

The project was first reported in the media during January 2017, where it was stated that Dulquer Salmaan would associate with debutant director Ra. Karthik for a Tamil film, in a film to be produced by Kenanya Films. Described as "romantic entertainer-cum-road movie", Karthik stated that the film would have several lead actresses and initial discussions were held with Nivetha Pethuraj and Megha Akash about roles. Other actresses including Akshara Haasan, Nazriya Nazim and Parvathy were also considered, though neither were officially announced to be attached to the project. In June 2017, Karthik stated that the casting process for the lead actresses was still ongoing, and that there were no plans of making a Malayalam version of the film. George C. Williams, Sreekar Prasad and debutant Dheena Dayalan joined the team as the film's cinematographer, editor and music composer respectively, while the director stated that the team planned to begin the shoot by December 2017. Considering the film's theme of travel, Karthik stated the film would be shot across in locations including Chennai, Pollachi, Coimbatore, Chandigarh and Nainital. Shalini Pandey joined the cast of the film during October 2017, but production was delayed as a result of Kenanya Films' financial problems.

100 Degree Celsius

Based on real-life incidents, the movie revolved around the lives of five women — a housewife, banker, IT professional, TV reporter and a college student, and Jawahar was keen to cast five prominent actresses to star in the Tamil version of the film. In September 2016, Jawahar approached Trisha to star in the lead role of the film, but Trisha refused the offer. The makers then held talks with Shriya Saran to star in the lead role in the film, but she also turned down the offer. Nikesha Patel accepted to work on the film in October 2016, while Raai Laxmi also joined the cast in January 2017 and stated that she would portray a radio jockey rather than that of a TV reporter seen in the original. A further role was offered to Nivetha Pethuraj, who opted against working the film. Later in August 2017, Jawahar held talks with Amala Paul about portraying a character in the film, though the actress did not sign the project. Raai Laxmi then left the project in September 2017 stating there had been "unreasonable delays".