Kasaravalli takes up Siddharth

Girish Kasaravalli, the eminent director in Kannada, whose Gulabi Talkies won two awards (best film and best actress) in the recent Osian Cine Fan International film festival held in Delhi, is all set to direct his next film. Kasaravalli is also the recipient of maximum number of Swarna Kamals at the National film awards. His next film will be a cinematic adaptation of the famous novel 'Siddharth' written by Yashwanth Chittala.

The movie is being produced by Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment. This is the second production of Reliance which is already producing Ijjodu featuring Meera Jasmine and directed by M.S. Sathyu, who is famous for his offbeat movies.

After completing Siddharth, Girish Kasaravalli will take up a children's film for Basanthkumar Patil Productions. Two of Kasaravalli's earlier films, Gulabi Talkies and Naayi Neralu, have been produced by Basanthkumar Patil Productions.

Reliance Entertainment is said to be investing crores of rupees to make films in several languages including the four South Indian languages. According to unconfirmed reports, they have even approached noted director Mani Ratnam to do a film. It is heard that Reliance has signed agreements worth Rs.120 crores with various filmmakers for projects in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.