Santosh Sivan signs Prithviraj, Genelia for Urumi

Santosh Sivan, the highly acclaimed cinematographer and director, has pulled off a casting coup for his next film. He has signed the new poster boy of Malayalam cinema, Prithviraj and Genelia D’Souza for his period film titled Urumi.

Santosh Sivan has ten films to his credit as a director including the critically acclaimed films like Malli, Terrorist and Tahaan. After universal acclaim for his work as one of the cinematographers for Mani Rathnam’s Raavanan, Santosh Sivan has moved on to his next. Urumi is a period film set in the 15th century and it’s about a group of men who want to assassinate Vasco Da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, who set foot in Calicut in 1498. The film has a subtitle ‘Who killed Vasco Da Gama?’ Genelia will don the role of a Portuguese princess while Prithviraj will don the role of the gang’s leader that wants to kill Vasco Da Gama.

Urumi is an 8 ft long flexible sword used in Kalari fights, a martial art form which is prevalent in Kerala. The film promises to be an epic action adventure with a love story. Sankar Ramakrishnan who had directed the short film 'Island Express' in the Kerala Cafe anthology is writing the script for Urumi. This bilingual film which will be made in Malayalam and Tamil is being aimed at international audiences. His previous films like Terrorist, Tahaan were major international successes especially in the film festival circuit.

Prithviraj had earlier act in Santosh Sivan’s Anandabhadram co-starring Riya Sen. On the other hand, casting Genelia comes as a big surprise. She has quite a few Telugu and Tamil projects in her kitty and acting in a Santosh Sivan’s film has added another feather in her cap. Genelia was recently given the Brand Ambassador of the Year-2010 by CNBC-Awaaz. This will be her first film with Santosh Sivan at the helm of affairs.