Producer BR Shetty wants The Mahabharata to be better than Bollywood and Hollywood films
The Baahubali franchise has taken Indian cinema to a global level. The gargantuan success of the series has shown what Indian cinema is capable of and the real potential of our movies in the global market. Above all, Baahubali broke the popular notion that Indian cinema is more than Bollywood.
The magnum opus The Mahabharata is another huge project that can further raise the bar of Indian movies. This adaptation of MT Vasudevan Nair’s novel Randamoozham will be directed by noted ad filmmaker VA Shrikumar Menon.
The movie is being produced by UAE based Indian businessman BR Shetty at a whopping budget of Rs 1000 crores (USD 150 million). In a recent chat session with popular radio channel Red FM, the producer opened up about how the project was initiated.
Apparently, director VA Shrikumar Menon and MT Vasudevan Nair had discussed about the movie adaptation of Mahabaratha, but they were skeptical about the budget as their estimate was around Rs 750 crores. But BR Shetty was willing to invest Rs 1000 crores as he wanted the movie to be better than any Hollywood or Bollywood movie.
He added that the pre-production works have already been started. VA Shrikumar Menon and his team are working on the cast and other technical crew. They have already had talks with Academy Award winner AR Rahman and are trying to bring on board some of the best available technicians from across the world.
MT Vasudevan Nair’s novel Randamoozham is based on the Hindu mythological epic Mahabharatha. It is told from Bheemasenan’s perspective and Mohanlal is playing that character. Other leading actors from Indian cinema and Hollywood also will be part of the movie.
The Mahabharata will be made as a multilingual in English, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. It will also be dubbed into all major Indian and foreign languages. It is scheduled to go on floors by September 2018.
The movie will be made in two parts with the second installment hitting screens within three months time from the first part’s release. The makers are eyeing to release the first part movie by 2020.
