By R Manishaa, Bollywood Trade News Network

Producer Boney Kapoor has acquired the remaking rights of the Telugu film, POKHIRI (released last year withr ecord number of prints), rumored to be one of the highest ever price for the remaking rights of any south film. The rights of the Mahesh Babu starrer, which was a smashing hit at the box-office and grossed the largest collections for a Telugu film in 75 years, were officially acquired by Boney Kapoor a week ago from its producer and director, Puri Jagan (Jagannadh), who is currently the hottest selling filmmaker in the Telugu industry. The film will be directed by actor-choreographer turned director, Prabhu Deva, who also directed the Tamil version of POKHIRI. The film opened to a thumping response at the box-office a week ago. “I am sure Prabhu Deva will do full justice to it. He is a director of great caliber and did a wonderful interpretation of the film in Tamil. Besides he is a great friend to me, as much as Boney Kapoor,” Puri Jagannadh revealed from Hyderabad yesterday. Interestingly, Puri who is a Ram Gopal Varma protégé, was to direct the Hindi version of the film for Varma Productions at one point of time. “Ramu was very keen on re-making the film in Hindi once again with Mahesh Babu as the protagonist and we were both seriously toying with the idea some time back,” Puri recalls, adding that Ramu even arranged a special screening for Amitabh Bachchan who was thoroughly impressed with the film. “I felt privileged when Amit-ji watched the film at that time with Ramu,” he adds. The screening for Bachchan had even led to speculation that Bachchan wanted it to be made with Abhishek as the lead hero. However, Puri got busy with his Telugu assignments, including his latest release, DESUMADURU and the planning for his forthcoming film. “I then decided that it would be impossible for me to do justice to the Hindi version with my busy schedule. So when Boney Kapoor approached me, I waited for some time before officially giving him the rights last week,” Puri says.

Boney Kapoor was unavailable for comment, so was Ram Gopal Varma. But the big question on everyone’s minds is the actor who’ll be signed to play the central character in the film. “It will have to be a very big star with a great range because the role is a difficult one but I am sure Boney is already exploring several options, so is Prabhu Deva,” Puri reveals. The Hindi version is said to start sometime in April this year after Boney Kapoor makes an official announcement early next month. One will have to wait and watch whether it takes the box-office by storm as much as the Telugu and Tamil version.