Actor Suriya, who was pegged to play the role of Gemini Ganesan in actress Savitri’s biopic Mahanati, will reportedly not be a part of the Tamil-Telugu bilingual. According to The Times of India, the film’s team had to replace the actor as the offer didn’t materialise. However, it isn’t clear who has replaced actor Suriya in the film.
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Directed by Nag Ashwin, the movie will have Keerthy Suresh playing the yesteryear actress while Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays a major role. Keerthy’s casting comes as a surprise, especially since actress Nithya Menen was said to have been already signed on for the role. Keerthy’s popularity in Telugu and Tamil films was apparently one of the reasons Nag Ashwin cast her as the lead heroine.
Savitri is widely regarded as one of South Indian cinema’s finest actresses. She debuted in 195o with the Telugu film Pelli Chesi Choodu and went on to act in over 40 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. She won the Rashtrapati Award in 1960 for Chivaraku Migiledi. Savitri married actor Gemini Ganesan in 1952. In 1981, she succumbed to cancer at the age of 45.
The bilingual will focus on the important moments in the actresses’s life.