Sekhar Kammula to direct Telugu, Tamil remakes of Kahaani

New Delhi: Vidya Balan starrer Kahaani is getting a southern flavour with Endemol India and Moving Pictures roping in Sekhar Kammula to direct the Telugu and Tamil adaptation of the hit thriller. Kammula has directed successful films like Dollar Dreams, Happy Days and Leader. The director hopes to retain the soul of story while reworking on other elements.

Talking to PTI in Delhi, director Sekhar Kammula said, "Unfortunately, I did not see Kahaani in theatres because somebody gave away the ending. After Endemol got the rights, they approached me to make it in Telugu and Tamil. I watched it again. It is a spectacular film and I want to bring it to Telugu and Tamil audiences."

The Tollywood filmmakers is currently busy with the writing of the story, which is likely to be set in Hyderabad, Sekhar Kammula added, "We are currently working on the final elements of the script. We hope to give a good spin to it. We are keeping the soul and the quest intact but will do changes with the end. As far as setting is concerned, Hyderabad would be a great place to set the story."

Endemol, which has been behind popular shows like Bigg Boss, Fear Factor, Savdhaan India, The Great Indian Laughter, is venturing out into movie production for the first time with the remake of Kahaani. They have teamed up with Moving Pictures, the film production arm of Select Media Holdings Pvt Ltd.

Talking to PTI, Deepak Dhar, CEO of Endemol India, said, "We missed the chance of being a part of the film when it was being made in Hindi. But there was this opportunity to take the story forward in other regional markets like Telugu and Tamil. We bought the rights of Kahaani right after its release."

Deepak Dhar said Sekhar, who has won several awards for his coming-of-age movies, will add new dimension to the story. "We have been thinking about venturing into movie production for sometime and Kahaani presented the perfect chance. We will get into Bollywood also but first we want to explore the regional markets. These are the first few steps," said Dhar.

However, renowned novelist Yandamoori Veerendranath is co-writing the adaptation with Kammula for the remake of Kahaani. Vijay C Kumar will be the director of photography, while Marthand Venkatesh handles the editing work for the film.

Stay locked to this space to read more updates on this mega budget project.