Jaggubhai

Jaggubhai is an upcoming drama Tamil film starring Sarath Kumar and Shriya Saran in the lead. The film, launched in early 2008, will be released later in the year.

Production

Development

In mid-2004, K. S. Ravikumar planned a film under the title Jaggubhai with the proposed cast including Rajnikanth in the lead role playing a terrorist. Aishwarya Rai was finalized to play the female lead role, after initial expectations that Rani Mukerji or Jyothika Saravanan would portray the role. The film which was set to have music composed by A.R. Rahman, had a photo shoot and was touted to be Rajinikanth's comeback film after the debacle of Baba in 2002. However, simultaneously, another Rajnikanth project was announced - Chandramukhi, directed by P. Vasu. With the progress of Chandramukhi, Jaggubhai was delayed and subsequently shelved. Since it was shelved, Ravi Kumar went to direct Varalaru: History of Godfather with Ajith Kumar in 2006 and the high-budget Dasavatharam with Kamal Hassan''.

During the post-production of Dasavatharam, Ravikumar announced that he would re-start his shelved project, Jaggubhai with a different cast.

Casting

Sarath Kumar was signed to play the dual lead role, becoming the sixth collabaration between the director and the actor. Sneha, who was picked to portray mother in the film, opted out due to her discontent in being the mother of the lead heroine. Despite early indications that Sarath Kumar's real-life step daughter, Rayan, would portray the role of the daughter, Shriya Saran bagged the role. Saran who had met commercial success with Sivaji: The Boss was then requested to portray dual roles in the film, however she rejected the opportunity, citing that she will only play a single role. After approaching Simran Bagga, Padmapriya, Kamalini Mukerji and Vimala Raman for the role, Bollywood actress Tabu agreed to do the mother's role, demanding a sum of 75 lakhs but later walked out of the role. Veteran comedien, Goundamani also plays a role in the project. Newcomer Rafee has been announced the music director of the film while Sarathkumar's home production company Radaan Mediaworks and Sun TV Network collaborate to produce the film.