Arun Vijay replaces Fahadh Faasil in Mani Ratnam’s Chekka Chivantha Vaanam

For the last few months, social medias have seen all sorts of speculations about Mani Ratnam’s next movie. Clearing all the airs, the official announcement of the title and cast came last day. The movie is being made as a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu. The Tamil version is titled as ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’ while the Telugu version is named ‘Nawab’.

Arvind Swamy, Vijay Sethupathi, Simbu, Arun Vijay, Aditi Rao Hydari, Jyothika and Aishwarya Rajesh will be playing the lead roles. Malayali actor Fahadh Faasil was initially cast in the movie, but he opted out recently due to some unknown reasons. Arun Vijay has replaced him in the role.

Though Arun Vijay has been in the industry for nearly two decades, it was his terrific performance as the villain in Gautham Menon’s Yennai Arindhaal (YA) that proved to be a game changer for the actor. Post YA, he was signed for some big ticket films in Telugu and Kannada. His last release was Kuttram 23, a cop thriller, which emerged as a big commercial success. He is currently shooting for Baahubali star Prabhas’ Saaho, in which he is playing a prominent part.

Meanwhile, several theories are floating around about the reason for Fahadh opting out of Mani Ratnam’s movie. Some say it was due to his prior commitments in Malayalam. Fahadh in a recent interview said that he opted out of a big project, he didn’t name it, as he couldn’t connect with the character or the story. Eventually, it was his wife Nazriya who asked him to inform the director if he was not comfortable with it. Fahadh is currently busy shooting for Anwar Rasheed’s comeback movie Trance