By Hindustan Times
Bol Bachchan has entered the Rs.100 crore club and writer-director Rohit Shetty can now stay up for more Golmaal. No, he’s not able to crack Golmaal 4 yet, as he’s still to fasten on a script that may take the hit franchise forward. But he's gearing as much as board the Chennai Express with
Shah Rukh Khan. Buzz is that Deepika Padukone may be his leading lady. Rohit is non-committal, “No, one was finalised yet, but now that Shah Rukh is back from London, we’ll take a decision. You'll be able to expect a statement in a week.”
More than his heroine, Rohit has a larger casting call, choosing almost 50 actors who play significant characters on this reel life travelogue.
“Since the film charts a journey from Mumbai to Rameshwaram (Tamil Nadu), I WOULD LIKE among the ensemble cast to be from the south film industry. I NEED actors to appear and sound real, not speak south languages in Hindi accents,” reasons Rohit, revealing that to make Singham, set in Maharashtra, more authentic, he had cast 15 Marathi film actors, including Ashok Saraf, Sachin Khedekar, Sonali Kulkarni and Vijay Patkar. “It’s a huge task. We’ve been doing our homework well by watching a large number of south films.”
Chennai Express rolls on the end of September and will release mid-2013. For the reason that the Kolkata Knight Riders would be the defending champions next year, will Rohit pitch his film through the Indian Premier League Season 6? “That’s another decision Shah Rukh will take as a producer,” says the director.
