Chennai Diary…

Even Kamalahaasan himself doesnâ€™t remember how many times heâ€™s played a double role in the past. The...

Even Kamalahaasan himself doesnâ€™t remember how many times heâ€™s played a double role in the past. The superstar from the South will once again do a double-bill for his latest film, Abhay, which was launched in Chennai last week. A bilingual, which will be made in both Hindi and Tamil, the film will be directed by Suresh Krishna (whose past credits include such Hindi fiascos as Love and Jagruti), and is produced by Kandukondain Kandukondain producer Kalaipulli S Thanu.

The actor revealed that the story of the film was adapted from a book he himself had written some seventeen years ago. The film, incidentally, will be shot at one-stretch schedule until January 2001. â€œWe want to capture the misty winter of New Delhi,â€ director Krishna explained. Choosing the cast of the film was a Herculean task for the film-makers who had to ensure that there was enough glamour to appeal both to South Indian audiences and the rest of the country, as the film would be released next year in two versions. Raveena Tandon, who plays the leading lady in Abhay, claimed she was extremely excited at having landed the opportunity of working with Kamalahaasan.

Interestingly, both the cast and the crew of the film were mostly tight-lipped about the filmâ€™s subject. Publicity photographs, however, reveal that the two characters Kamalahaasan plays, are poles apart. While one is an army officer (a part for which the actor trained extensively, he claims), the other is an all-shaven, bulky wrestler-like person. The obvious similarity that one publicity photo (reproduced for you above) showing a nude Kamalahaasan crouched on his toes in a dimly-lit room bears to the famous Terminator pose of Arnold Schwarzenegger is merely a coincidence, Kamal insists.

Story continues below this ad

At the lavish launch of the film, one saw such veteran film-makers as Mani Ratnam, Bharati Raaja, Priyadarsan, Ramesh Sippy and even Sanjay Leela Bhansali share the stage with such talent as cameraman Thiru, choreographer Tharun Kumar, music-directors Ehsaan Noorani-Shankar Mahadevan-Loy Mendonca, actors Vijaykanth and Madhavan.

The crew also mentioned that some of the filmâ€™s demanding action sequences will be directed by Australiaâ€™s Grand Page, who are responsible for such sterling work in films like Mad Max and even Mission Impossible 2. They will also design some thirty minutes of computer graphics.

When asked why Kamal wasnâ€™t keen on directing this film too (considering heâ€™s written the story himself and will be performing the two main parts), the actor replied that heâ€™s not a greedy man. â€œThe roles Iâ€™m playing in this film arenâ€™t simple. I want enough time to work on them. I donâ€™t think I could direct this movie,â€ he said.