Kuselan

Kuselan
Directed by	P. Vasu
Written by	Sreenivasan
Produced by	K. Balachandar Ashwini Dutt Vijayakumar
Starring	Rajnikanth Tamil: Pasupathy Nassar Vadivelu Telugu: Jagapati Babu Sunil Brahmanandam
Cinematography	Arvind Krishna
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Release date	2008
Country	India
Language	Tamil/Telugu

Kuselan is a forthcoming bilingual drama film to be directed by P. Vasu, who with Kuselan, will direct his fifth feature film with Rajnikanth. Rajnikanth, playing a guest role, is the only only common actor in the bi-lingual which is to be made into Tamil and Telugu respectively. Various other regional actor shave been signed up for the film, with Pasupathy, Vadivelu and Nassar playing roles in the Tamil version, whilst, Jagapati Babu, Sunil and Brahmanandam portray roles in the Telugu version. Whilst, G. V. Prakash Kumar and Arvind Krishna have confirmed their parts as members of the technical crew, the rest remain unselscted, as does the role of the heroine. The film which is expected to be released in July 2008, will be produced by prominent director, K. Balachandar for the Tamil version and Ashwini Dutt for its Telugu version. The film is a remake of the Malayalam claasic, Kadha Parayumbhol.

Production

Development

Following P. Vasu and Rajnikanth's blockbuster, Chandramukhi in 2005, Vasu had been keen to re-cast Rajnikanth in another role and prior to signing Kuselan, he had narrated a story entitled Vettaiyan, which would have been a sequel of a character featured in Chandramukhi.

Early in 2008, Rajnikanth signed up for S. Shankar's Robot, making it highly unlikely he would sign up to another film for a couple of years, due to Shankar's tendency to take two years shooting his films. However, in a sudden turn of events, Kuselan was launched at the Taj Coromandel in Chennai on January 14, 2008 coinciding with Pongal. The director, P. Vasu signed up Rajnikanth and Pasupathy to portray the lead roles, while noted director K. Balachandar agreed to produce the Tamil version of the film alongside Seven arts Productions, while Aswani Dutt agreed to produce the film in Telugu with Rajnikanth and Jagapati Babu in the lead roles. The film was announced to be remake of Malayalam film, Katha Parayumbol which was written and starred in by Sreenivasan, whilst Mammooty essayed a guest role in the film.

Vasu made it clear that Rajnikanth would not be doing an honorary role in the movie which Mammooty had portrayed, but will play a full role, describing that the "The whole story revolves around him [Rajnikanth]".

Casting

Despite from the role of Rajnikanth, Vasu intended to use entirely different casts in either version of the bilingual film. Upon announcement, actors Vadivelu and Nassar were added to the cast of the Tamil version, and yesteryear director S. P. Muthuraman agreed to play a guest role in the film. However the selction of the heroines in the film is still ongoing. Despite Trisha Krishnan's request to appear opposite Rajnikanth, Nayanthara has been approached, and is likely to accept the role, however finding a female lead opposite Pasupathy has been more difficult for the director, with Simran Bagga, Tabu and Sneha all being considered for the role in the Tamil version. It has also been indicated that several prominent Tamil actors, most notably Kamal Haasan, Ajith Kumar, Vijay, Vikram, Trisha Krishnan and Namitha have been approached to be a part of a song in the project.

In the Telugu version, comedian actors Sunil, Brahmanandam and Venu Madhav all signed up to play the roles of Jagapati Babu's fellow villagers. Ileana D'Cruz recently turned down an offer to act in the film, citing date problems. Like the Tamil versiopn, it has also been indicated that several prominent Telugu actors, most notably Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Mahesh Babu, Allu Arjun and Ileana D'Cruz have been approached to be a part of a song in the project. Technicians confimed in the two films are G. V. Prakash Kumar who will operate as the music composer, whilst Arvind Krishna will be the cinematographer for the bilingual.