After witnessing the worldwide success of Baahubali and realizing the potential and reach of an Indian film, a handful of filmmakers have announced big budget films. The first film to aspire to become another Baahubali is Tamil filmmaker Sundar C’s period drama, ‘Sangamithra’, a 200+ Cr multilingual project.
The project was announced with Shruti Haasan in the titular role. Later, the makers succeeded in creating buzz for the film by launching Sangamithra amidst lot of hype at Cannes International Film Festival in May this year. Just when it seemed the makers had a potential cast and crew on board to get rolling, Shruthi walked out of the project citing makers’ failure in handing her over the full script and details of shooting schedules.
Since then, the makers have been trying to find an apt replacement. On one side, names of actresses such as Nayanthara, Anushka, Tamanna, Hansika etc. kept emerging and on the other side, rumors started spreading that the project was shelved. As per the latest reports, the project is still alive and they have signed Disha Patani to play the titular warrior princess character.
This may seem like a wild rumor but Disha is likely to have been finalized as director Sundar’s wife Kushbu has confirmed that the film would roll from December.
Now imagine Disha Patani, someone who has yet to prove herself as an actress, carrying this 200+ Cr film on her shoulders. Isn’t it an audacious decision to sign Disha for a role which demanded a popular actress like Nayan, Anushka or Shruti Haasan? Even a potential story may fail to keep audience engaged with a clumsy lead actor. Even the male leads – Tamil actors Arya and Jayam Ravi are unknown faces outside Tamil Nadu, where they are counted among mid-range heroes. Cautious and wise decisions need to be taken when investing such mammoth budget or Kollywood will have another ‘Puli’ (Vijay starrer).