All roads in Chennai led to AVM Studios in Chennai on Friday as Ajith's Billa, a remake of yesteryear blockbuster titled the same went to floors.
And directing it will be Vishnuvardhan, the modern Tamil director. L Suresh of Ananda Pictures produces this film. Nirav Shah handles the camera and Yuvanshankar Raja scores the music.
All eyes were on 'Super Star' Rajinikanth, who lit the kuthuvillaku and expressed his confidence that the remake version would also go on to make it big.
A glitterati of Tamil film personalities including Sri Priya, who played the female lead in the original, veteran actor and producer L Balaji, AVM Saravanan, R B Choudhary, South India Film Chamber of Commerce president K R G, Tamil Film Producer Council president Rama Narayanan, actor Prabhu, directors Mani Ratnam, K S Ravikumar, Dharani, Saran, Suresh Krissna among others took part.
Special poojas were conducted and the script was handed over to director Vishnuvardhan and Ajith by Rajinikanth.
Dressed in a dhoti and white shirt, Rajinikanth was at his cool best exchanging pleasantries with the film personalities. He made anxious enquiries about the film with Vishnuvardhan.
Ajith, clad in blazers, was accompanied by his wife Shalini. Huge cutouts of the actor were put up outside the studios and fans of Rajinikanth and Ajith gathered in large numbers at the venue and greeted the stars.
Besides Ajith, Billa stars Nayantara and Namitha as female leads. Prabhu plays a prominent role in the movie. Vishnuvardhan said that he had been toying with this idea of remaking
Billa for long. Speaking to reporters, he said,"A major portion of the movie would be shot in Malaysia. Rahman plays the role enacted by Major Sundararajan in the original while Prabhu is cast in role donned by Balaji".
