T'wood directors for Devegowda's grandson

It’s official. Puri Jagannadh, who has launched the likes of Puneeth Rajkumar and Ram Charan, will direct former prime minister HD Devegowda’s grandson and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son, Nikhil Gowda. The Telugu director confirms says, “Yes, I am launching him and preparing a script also.” The film is slated to take off in August.
Nikhil’s debut film will be made in Kannada and Telugu. Following this, the youngster will be working with five other top directors from Telugu cinema, including SS Rajamouli, Sukumar, Boyapati Seenu, Srinu Vaitla and Ram Gopal Varma.
A source close to the development tells us, “All the films will be made in Kannada and Telugu. Since Ram Gopal Varma has a presence across Tamil and Hindi industries, we might make that film in four languages. Similar is the case with Rajamouli’s film.”
In fact, each of these directors has already had talks with Karnataka’s top political family, as all the films are slated to be home productions. Former CM Kumaraswamy is no stranger to the industry, as he has been a part of many productions. While Puri’s film is the first film, for which the director is looking at a muhurat with a trailer that will showcase Nikhil’s abilities, speculations are rife that Rajamouli will be second in line. The Eega filmmaker may be busy with his mulitlingual magnum opus Baahubali, but we hear that his father, scriptwriter Vijayendra Prasad, has already spoken with Nikhil and his family and scripting is underway.
Considering that each of these productions will be big-budget projects, with the first to be made at over Rs 60 crore budget, the makers are also considering top names across industries as heroines. On his part, Nikhil is taking his debut very seriously, spending a large part of his days in training. “Most days, I am busy with training schedules from morning to evening, so much so that the next few months will be hectic for me,” says the youngster.
With inputs from Prathibha.Joy@timesgroup.com