Tuesday Aug 09 2011, Chennai

Vijay’s entry to Tollywood

Despite being one of the leading stars of Kollywood, Vijay maintained a low profile in the neighbouring Tollywood, even as his colleagues like Vikram, Suriya and Karthi making their presence felt in a big way in Andhra Pradesh.

Looks like the gap would be bridged soon with Nanban. Directed by Shankar, this remake of Bollywood blockbuster Three Idiots is fast taking shape. Buzz is that it would be dubbed and released in the ‘Telugu Desam’.

‘Earlier Shankar was supposed to do the Telugu version with Mahesh Babu playing the lead role, which was beautifully enacted by Aamir Khan in the original. However, the project didn’t take off due to some unavoidable reasons,’ say sources.

‘Now the producers of Nanban have decided to dub and release the film in Telugu,’ they add. Explaining the reasons behind the decision, sources say, ‘Only Vijay’s films are not popular in Telugu. But he is well known there as a leading Tamil actor. The two other protagonists of Nanban, Jiiva and Srikanth, too are popular in Andhra. And it is needless to mention about the heroine Ileana’s market value in Tollywood.’