Bollywood actor Dhanush, who became famous overnight with his song ‘Why This Kolaveri Di’ is set to make his Hollywood debut, playing a lead role opposite Uma Thurman.
Directed by Marjane Satrapi, the film, titled The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir, is based on a French best-seller book of the same name written by Romain Puértolas. According to Variety, Dhanush is said to be playing the role of Aja, a conjurer from an Indian colony of artists who is sent to Paris on a secret mission by his mother.
Winning his first National Award in 2010 for his role in Aadukalam, the actor co-starred with Amitabh Bachchan in 2015’s Shamitabh.
On choosing Dhanush for the role, Satrapi told Times of India, “As I was watching various Indian movies, Dhanush became the most obvious choice — his intelligence, his killer smile, his ability to enter fully into the skin of any character he played (and I can go on and on forever) made me confident that he was the one.”
Satrapi is known for the big screen adaptation of her own popular graphic novel Persepolis. She made her English-language directorial debut with The Voices starring Ryan Reynolds.
The shooting locations for the film include India, Paris, Morocco and Italy. The film is expected to hit theatres in mid-2016.
Dhanush is not the first one to step into Hollywood this year, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are also expected to make their Hollywood debut with XXX: The Return of Xander Cage and Baywatch, respectively.