21 June 2024
Hyderabad

The news about Akhil Akkineni’s next with debutant director Anil Kumar Upadyaula has been doing the rounds for over eight months but there’s not been a concrete update about the film. Sometime back there was buzz that the makers were looking to start it in February-March but it wasn’t meant to be. As the wait continues for Akkineni fans, we’ve got some exclusive updates about the film.

According to our sources, the pre-production of this untitled film is going at a brisk pace, with the principal photography set to kick off in two-three months from now. “The film is a period emotional drama set in the 11th century. Akhil will be playing a tribal character. There’s no socio-fantasy touch to it at all as speculated. As there are no references as such, the team is developing everything – the costumes, actors’ looks, production design and weapons etc – from scratch. Which is why it’s taking time. They want to control excess expenditure in the pre-production itself, so they are sweating now. It will, however, be Akhil’s biggest-budgeted flick until date. The actor is in prep mode for the part, growing his hair and beard,” a reliable source close to the development confirmed to us.

The team is also scouting for locations right now. “The film will be shot within the country, particularly in forests. Hyderabad will host the indoor portions. In fact, the crew is eagerly waiting to go to sets,” adds the source.

The prestigious UV Creations is pooling in resources for the project. Anil Kumar was previously associated with the production house for Prabhas-starrer Saaho, where he was the co-writer and associate director. He even directed the much-praised Ee Raathale animation video song from Radhe Shyam. He was in the news recently as well for designing the title concept video of megastar Chiranjeevi-starrer Vishwambhara.

-NAGARAJ GOUD