Exclusive! Tamil actor Atharvaa Murali roped in for Jigarthanda remake 'Valmiki'Feb 16 (AZINS) Even as the shooting of Valmiki, the Telugu remake of superhit 2014 Tamil film Jigarthanda, is set to begin by the end of February, the casting process has been on with many names being thrown in. While Varun Tej’s casting in the place of Bobby Simhaa from the original has drawn in a great deal of attention, all eyes are on the team to see who they will rope in to reprise the role of Siddharth who played a filmmaker in the Tamil film.

And we have exclusively learnt that after scouting names of Telugu actors like Naga Shaurya and Sree Vishnu, the makers have finally decided on Tamil actor Atharvaa Murali to play the part! A source in the know told DNA, “Talks have been on for a while now and it was only recently that the actor signed on the dotted line. An official announcement will come soon.”

While this will mark Atharvaa’s debut in Telugu cinema, he has earlier been approached to be part of a couple of films here and also had his films' released in Telugu in the past. But this will be the first mainstream movie he’s set to be seen in.

There’s a great deal of buzz around Valmiki with Harish Shankar having made a sensation in the past with a remake. He had notably brought back Pawan Kalyan into the groove with the Telugu remake of Dabangg, Gabbar Singh, which marked the actor’s first superhit in almost a decade.

Also, there’s curiosity to see how he will recreate the original by Karthik Subbaraj which is today noted as a cult classic. A search is on for an actress to play the part of Lakshmi Menon. To be produced by 14 Reels Entertainment, the film is a gangster comedy.