RGV to produce The Businessman starring Surya

Ram Gopal Varma has put his proposed Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bhudda: Don't F…K With Him directed by Telugu cinema's most successful director Puri Jagannath, on the back burner.

Instead Varma and Puri are getting together to produce and direct Surya in The Businessman. Says Puri Jagaanath, "It's the story of a gangster's journey from Chennai to Mumbai in three languages Hindi Tamil and Telugu." Puri has written the screenplay on his own.

Strangely none of the three individuals helming the project is conversant with Hindi. Jagannath who is the highest-paid director of the South with an enviable track-record of Telugu blockbusters admits there is a linguistic problem in creating The Businessman in Hindi. "I agree, I don't know the language. Neither does Ramu nor Surya. But I don't think that would be a problem."

Ram Gopal Varma who will produce the film is far more forthright, "I'd have you know that Murugadoss who made Ghajini and Prabhu Deva who directed Wanted didn't even know the Hindi alphabet and couldn't speak a word of Hindi. I think we'll manage quite well."

The Businessman will start shooting in September. Jagannath who's a cult name in Telugu cinema is relocating to Mumbai to be able to acclimatize himself with Bollywood.Says the softspoken Telugu director, "Many years ago, I tried to crack the Hindi market with a film Shart starring Tusshar Kapoor. That was a disaster. So I see The Businessman as my true beginning in Bollywood."