Ajith was not the 1st choice for Mankatha Movie

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Mankatha's director Venkat Prabhu had initially considered Vivek Oberoi for Ajith's role.



Thala Ajith was never on my agenda when I wrote the first draft of the script. I kept my usual gang of boys in mind while writing my characters. Initially I considered Vivek Oberoi for the central character, but that didn't work out.

It was my good friend, actor Vaibhav, who suggested that the script needed a big hero to pull it off. Around the same time I got a call from Ajith sir, who congratulated me on my new movie and asked if I had finalised the lead protagonist. I said, `Not yet'. He expressed his desire to perform a role similar to the character Heath Ledger had played in The Dark Knight. I was taken aback, since my lead hero's role was akin to what he'd described. When I told him that here also there was a negative role, his first reaction was, `What is it? If I like it, why don't I do it?' That's how Thala came on board and now the project has gone to a mammoth scale,“ was the big revelation Venkat Prabhu made at the press gathering of Mankatha that took place in the city.


Sticking to his policy that `a film should run on its own good content which will be its biggest promotion', Ajith was conspicuous by his absence. The other lead artistes like Arjun, Trisha, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali and Andrea took a leaf out of his book and stayed away too.


Prabhu was all praise for Vasuki, his costume designer and cousin for suggesting the George Clooney `salt and pepper' look for Ajith. The movie revolves around four bad guys with Ajith as Vinayak Mahadevan being the fifth and the worst.


When asked if there was any political pressure over its release Prabhu said, “People say so. I have no clue. If at all there is something, I guess, my producers Cloudnine Movies will handle it professionally“. Gangai Amaran, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Niranjan Bharathi, Ashwin, Mahat, Vaibhav and Jayaprakash were among those present.

Sunday, August 14, 2011 by deivam P Mohanraj · 0