Owing to Suriya’s popularity, Tamil Rakta Charitra to release in single part

By Bollywood Hungama -

October 20, 2010 - 12:00 AM IST

Owing to Suriya’s popularity, Tamil Rakta Charitra to release in single part

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Vivek Oberoi would be a part of the history with him being the first mainstream hero ever to have a two-part release of his film. Rakht Charitra would be arriving in its first part this Friday while the second part would come exactly a month later. However, this is for the Hindi and the Telugu version. When it comes to the Tamil version, which is expected to be spearheaded entirely by Suriya due to his immense popularity down South, Rakht Charitra would release in a single, albeit a longer version.

Confirms Ramu, "In the Hindi version, Vivek (Oberoi) features in both the parts of the film though Suriya is only introduced in the first part while he becomes far more prominent in the second version. Hence, it was a given that the Hindi version of the film would release in both the parts. Telugu version too made sense to come in two distinct parts since the audience out there in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining regions are pretty much aware about the core story and the exploits of Paritala Ravi (played by Vivek) and Suryanarayan Reddy (Suriya). Hence, for them it's the story that would matter most, more than the actors playing the part."

However, what tilted the balance in favour of a single part release of the Tamil version of Rakht Charitra was the bigger presence of Suriya in it. It was apparent that since Vivek comes primarily from the B-town, the audience may have gone a little restless to see only him in the first part of the film and then wait for their local hero Suriya to arrive only in the second part.

"Not that you would see only Suriya in the single part Tamil version", reassures Ramu, "Vivek is an integral part of the film and while he anyways had an equal role to play along with Suriya in the second part, there are scenes of his from the first part that have been integrated with the second part here. So now we will have a full length feature film with both the actors."

While both parts of the Hindi and Telugu versions would be a little over two hours each, the Tamil version is expected to be released with a three hours running length. Moreover, the editing of each of the three versions - whether Hindi, Telugu or Tamil, would differ as well so as to bring to fore the local flavour of the territories. This means that the trilingual features all the actors enacting their scenes little differently in each of the versions.

"I spoke in all the three languages - Tamil, Telugu as well as Hindi - but enacted the scenes differently", says Suriya who is not quite looking at Rakht Charitra as his big Bollywood launch but is instead treating it as just another exciting film of his, "Yes, I know that in Tamil, the film is coming in only one part."

Though he stays on to be quite modest about his popularity in South being the sole reason for the decision being made, he humbly attributes the decision making to his director Ram Gopal Varma.

"Since the first part doesn't feature me for most of its duration, Ramu felt it would make sense to wait for some time and then club both parts together", says Suriya, "Ramu feels that the film would find more patronage in Tamil version if crowds come in because of me."