Sekhar Kammula to direct 'Kahaani' in Tamil, Telugu

New Delhi: The Vidya Balan starrer 'Kahaani' is getting a southern flavour now with Endemol India and Moving Pictures roping in Sekhar Kammula. As he is about to direct the Telugu and Tamil adaptation of the hit thriller soon. Kammula has directed successful films like 'Dollar Dreams','Happy Days' and 'Leader'. The director hopes to retain the soul of story while reworking on other elements.

"Unfortunately, I did not see 'Kahaani' in theaters because somebody gave away the ending. After Endemol got the rights, they approached me to make it in Telugu and Tamil version. I watched it again. It is a spectacular film and I want to bring it to Telugu and Tamil audiences," Kammula futher said.

"We are currently working on the final elements of the script.We hope to give a good spin to it. We are keeping the soul and the quest intact but will do changes with the end. As far as setting is concerned, Hyderabad would be a great place to set the story," the director elaborated. Endemol, which has been behind popular shows like'Bigg Boss', 'Fear Factor', 'Savdhaan India', 'The Great Indian Laughter', is venturing out into the movie production for

the first time with the remake of 'Kahaani'. They have teamed up with Moving Pictures, the film production arm of Select Media Holdings Pvt Ltd. "We missed the chance of being a part of the film when it was being made in Hindi. But there was this opportunity to take the story forward in other regional markets like Telugu and Tamil. We bought the rights of 'Kahaani right after it release," said Deepak Dhar, CEO of Endemol India. Dhar quoted that Sekhar, who has won several awards for his coming of age movies, will add new dimension to the story. "We have been thinking about venturing into movie production for quite sometime and 'Kahaani' presented the perfect chance. We will get into Bollywood also but first we want to explore the regional markets. These are the first few steps," explained Dhar.

Vijay C Kumar will be the Director of Photography and Marthand Venkatesh will edit the film. Renowned novelist Yandamoori Veerendranath, is co-writing the adaptation with Kammula.