Right as the year begins, seems like we are in for a treat with back to back big releases. Nanban, remake of the Bollywood blockbuster Three Idiots, is directed by Shankar and has no less than an ensemble star cast including Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth. To call it the most expected movie of the year is naive, especially when the year has just started. But there's no denial to the fact that Nanban is riding high on expectations both from Vijay and Shankar fans. Not to mention, the movie's success in Hindi and Chetan Bhagat's best seller book's super success upon which it is based on.
The casting process begun on a high note after Vijay gave nod to star in the movie but in a matter of few weeks time, the Kaavalan walked out of the project due to some differences with the makers of the film. Gemini Film Circuit, which acquired the South Indian remake rights of 3 idiots, then approached Surya and almost signed him to play the lead role played by Aamir Khan in the original. But the actor also stepped out of Nanban, as the production house refused to meet his demands.
On the other end, Shankar kick-started the shooting of Nanban with the other cast: Ileana D'Cruz, Jeeva, Srikanth, and Sathyaraj. In the meantime, the makers of the film decided to go with their first choice – Vijay. They convinced him and sealed the deal finally.
Nanban is also Shankar's first remake. Shankar has always relied on his original stories and it's quite unusual for a director of his caliber to embark on a remake project. It is said that Shankar got the idea of remaking this movie after he watched it on DVD during the shoot breaks of his blockbuster film Endhiran. He fell in love with it immediately that he decided to remake it. He bought the rights and started the project soon after with Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth in the lead.
The first schedule of the shooting was completed at Ooty followed by second in Dehradun. The entire shoots were completed by the end of August except a song. Some of the songs of Nanban have been shot in London, Buckingham and Europe. However, though the movie was ready by September last week, the bosses decided to push the release date due to Vijay's other release Velayudham.
This film also marks Ileana's reentry into Tamil. She has not been seen in the industry after her appearance in Kedi a few years ago although there are rumors every now and then about her possible Tamil project. Nanban's ensemble star cast also includes Sathyaraj, Anuya, S J Surya, Raghava Lawrence, Uma Padmanabhan and Manobala.
Nanban's music launch was held without much fanfare in an engineering college in Coimbatore. Sound track as well as teaser trailers of songs have been receiving positive responses ever since. The six songs Harris scored for the movie are not exactly replicas of the original versions but Harris has given his nice touch to each one of them thereby regionalising them.
However, Nanban has generated curiosity for many reasons and being Vijay-Shankar's film is the prime factor for the hype. Adding to that the movie is a remake of a popular Hindi movie, which bagged countless awards for various category and the audience want to see how the Tamil version has been made with the local sensibilities.
Certified as U, without any cuts by the Censor Board, Nanban will be distributed by Gemini Film Circuit. Advance bookings have already begun and a Telugu version is also being released on January 26th.
