Alia Bhatt as Sita and Suriya stars as Lord Rama; Vishnu Manchu reveals dream cast for his Ramayana: ‘The script and dialogues are ready'

Indian Express

2 days ago

In the past few years, Indian mythology has become the new favourite subject of several filmmakers. The Ramayana was recently adapted by director Om Raut into his 2023 project Adipurush. However, his version of the Ramayana didn't resonate with the audience, and emerged as a major flop. Amid the criticism for that movie, filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari announced his version of the Ramayana, which is scheduled to release in two parts and is currently under production. Now, actor Vishnu Manchu has revealed that he, too, has a script ready. But, his version of Ramayana focuses on the life of Ravana.
In a recent conversation with Nayandeep Rakshit on his YouTube channel, the Kannappa actor was asked whom he'd cast in his version of the story, and he quickly said, 'The only person who immediately appears in my mind for the role of Lord Rama is actor Suriya.' For the role of Sita, he picked Alia Bhatt.
He then revealed, 'Funny that you ask, but I already have a script about Ravana. It covers his story from his birth to death. For the same, I approached Suriya in 2009 to play Ram. But, because the budgets were not working out for me, it didn't work out. The director of the film was supposed to be the legendary filmmaker Raghavendra Rao. My father was supposed to play the role of Ravana. I have the script and dialogues ready for it, but I don't know if I will ever be able to make it.'
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He then expressed the desire to play the role of Lord Hanuman. 'But, Raghavendra sir didn't want me to play Hanuman. He wanted me to play Indrajeet. But, I would probably want Suriya's brother Karthi to play Indrajeet.' He added, 'The character of Lakshman is very soft, I would probably cast Jr NTR's older brother Kalyan Ram. For Jatayu, I would cast Sathyaraj sir. The Katappa from Baahubali.'
Vishnu Manchu recently pulled off a big budget mythological drama Kannappa, where he played the titular role while actors Akshay Kumar, Prabhas and Mohanlal played Lord Shiva, Rudra and Kirata, respectively. The film, however, had a short run at the box office. It earned just Rs 41.75 crore.
Meanwhile, Nitesh Tiwari recently surprised his fans by sharing a glimpse of his version of Ramayana, where actor Ranbir Kapoor is playing the role of Lord Rama. Actress Sai Pallavi is playing Goddess Sita and Yash is playing Ravana. The first part of the film is scheduled to release on Diwali next year. Other films to have taken inspiration from mythology were Ayan Mukerji's Brahmastra (2022) and Nag Ashwin's Kalki: 2898 AD (2024). Both films earned well at the box office.