Pithamagan goes Bollywood

Known to make successful Bollywood films from South Indian films over the years, Satish Kaushik has now set his eyes on the 2003 Tamil super hit film, Pithamagan, which he has been wanting to make since a long time.
The original Pithamagan was directed by Bala and starred Vikram who had also won a National award for his performance in the film.

The film had also won six Filmfare awards in the South. In Satish’s remake, Sanjay Dutt will play the lead actor. A source says, “Satishji instantly loved Pithamagan when he watched it for the first time.

Recently, he bought the rights of the films and has already spoken to Sanjay Dutt, who is equally excited about it.” Not denying the news, Satish Kaushik says, “I can only confirm the news when everything is official and finalised.”

Another Tamil movie is making its way up north to see a remake. Satish Kaushik who successfully remade Bala's 'Sethu', as 'Tere Naam' starring Salman Khan, is now eyeing on another Bala venture, 'Pithamagan' that features Vikram and Suriya, which shot them to fame and a whole new level as actors.

The filmmaker has bagged the copyrights of 'Pithamagan'. This Vikram and Suriya starrer was a big hit down south and Kaushik is very excited about its copyrights.  The film had a rustic feel to it and portrayed the bond between the protagonists and even fetched Vikram a National Award for his performance as Chithan.

Bollywood with the success of Ghajini, Wanted, Singham, Ready and Force, all remakes of films from South.

"I had seen Pithamagan at the big screen in 2003. I was moved by the story and especially the character played by Vikram. Since then I wanted to remake it and now I finally can," Kaushik said.

Pithamagan won a National Award for Vikram and marked the stardom of Suriya.

"For this movie I am going to cast two very strong actors. Especially one of them who's an action hero with innocent looks. But I haven't narrowed down on any names yet," says Kaushik.

If sources are to be believed, Kaushik wants to either cast actor Saif Ali Khan or Hrithik Roshan for the character Vikram played in the Tamil version.

Pithamagan is about the unlikely friendship between Chithan, an autistic graveyard caretaker and Sakthi, a conman.