Mahanati is one of the most anticipated film of 2018. It is a bilingual biopic of veteran actress Savitri, given that the actress worked in the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi film industries for over 30 years. The film has a huge cast were Keerthy Suresh essay the role of Savitri while Dulquer Salmaan is playing the role of her husband, Gemini Ganesan. There are also popular actors such as Samantha Ruth Prabhu (Akkineni) as Madhuravani and Vijay Deverakonda as Vijay Anthony in this film. Naga Chaitanya reportedly plays the role of his grandfather, Akkineni Nageswar Rao, in this film. From the time the film’s first teaser and two songs have been unveiled, fans are eagerly awaiting for the film to release. Fans just can’t get over the uncanny resemblance that Keerthy shares with the yesteryear’s actress.
Ever since Mahanati’s main cast got confirmed, fans are curious to know about the kind of role Shalini Pandey of Arjun Reddy fame would play in this film. Finally, a hint of her character has been revealed in a video released on social media that takes us through the making of the film.
According to the glimpse of Shalini shown in the video, looks like she plays an older married woman sporting a traditional look. Her appearance with a huge bindi, the large nose pin and her sari does take one back in time. This was the everyday attire for housewives in 60s. So, does she play the role of a family member of one of the prominent characters in the film? We will have to wait and see.
Image: latestly.com
Apart from Shalini’s look, the video also showcases the effort that has been taken by every department associated in the film, especially those like set design and costumes teams. In order to replicate an era of past on celluloid takes a lot of hard work and man hours. The team went through more than 1000 auditions as there are about 150 speaking roles. Art director Thotta Tharani helped the team with the set design. From cars of the era to the kind of toys that children played with, the filmmakers have given attention to all the minute details.
We can also see some fun moments between the cast such as Vijay Devarakonda and Samantha Akkineni riding a retro bike. We see Keerthy Suresh and Dulquer Salmaan make faces while Shalini tries to hide her face behind a book. Using Savitri’s voice to begin this video adds nostalgia for movie lovers.
This most awaited biopic of the actress Savitri is written and directed by Nag Ashwin. This huge film is bankrolled by Vyjayanthi Movies. As mentioned earlier, this flick has a huge ensemble cast including Keerthy Suresh, Dulquer Salmaan, Samantha Akkineni, Vijay Deverakonda, Prakash Raj, Banu Priya, Shalini Pandey and others with few stars in cameos as well. The music of this film is done by Mickey J Meyer. Mahanati is titled Nadigaiyar Thilagam in Tamil and the film will release in Malayalam as well. Mahanati is expected to hit theatres on May 9 of this year.
