Naga Chaitanya likely to headline the Telugu remake of Simbu's hit Maanaadu

When leading production house Suresh Productions did everything to stop the Telugu dubbed release of Simbu's action thriller Maanaadu and acquired its dubbing, remake rights across all languages, it was quite evident that either Rana Daggubati or Naga Chaitanya was in contention for its Telugu remake. Well, it's almost official Naga Chaitanya will be the face of Maanaadu's Telugu version that's set to go on floors soon.

Maanaadu, starring Simbu, Kalyani Priyadarshan and SJ Suryah in the lead, was a taut political thriller with a time-loop dimension, where both the protagonist and the antagonist keep experiencing the same day again. How will Simbu realise the purpose behind this and avoid a major political crisis in the state? This forms the crux of the film. Currently streaming on SonyLIV, Maanaadu also marked director Venkat Prabhu's return to form. 

Reportedly Naga Chaitanya has almost signed the dotted line for the project. It's not known if Venkat Prabhu will direct the Telugu remake. However, the filmmaker in a recent interview with The Federal had hinted that he would be making a straight Telugu film after his current project with Ashok Selvan, Manmatha Leelai. Was he referring to the Telugu remake of Maanaadu? Only time shall tell.

In the conversation, he mentioned that actors Vijay, Dhanush, and Sivakarthikeyan's collaborations with Telugu directors and producers to expand their markets are a healthy trend. "I want to bridge the gap by teaming up with actors across industries and languages. Right during the scripting stage, I write a story keeping big names from the same/different industry in mind. It comes to me naturally," Venkat Prabhu said. 

Naga Chaitanya will next be seen in Vikram Kumar's coming-of-age tale Thank You alongside Raashi Khanna, Avika Gor and has also signed a horror web series with the former, that features Priya Bhavani Shankar as his on-screen pair. He's set to team up with Naandhi filmmaker Vijay Kanakamedala for a project as well.