Award-winning filmmaker Prakash Jha to direct web biopic on ex-PM Narasimha Rao

Mumbai: Veteran Telugu film producer Allu Aravind has collaborated with National Award-winning filmmaker Prakash Jha for the biopic series of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Aravind, also the father of Telugu star Allu Arjun, under his Aha Studio has collaborated with Applause Entertainment and with Samir Nair and Prakash Jha, he made the official announcement of the web series.

"The idea of making the web series is to put everything on the table. Bringing the fascinating political journey of Mr Rao. We will make it in multiple languages - Telugu, Tamil and Hindi because Rao himself was multilingual. He knew 16 languages." Aravind told IANS

On Prakash Jha as director of the web series, Arvind said, "I think we couldn't have had a better filmmaker than Prakash Jha saab to helm a political story. He is an expert in telling political drama series. Mr Rao was one of the very interesting and important political personalities in Indian politics. Prakash saab is the best to tell such stories."

The story of the web series will be based on the book 'Half Lion' written by historian Vinay Sitapati.

Asked about the announcement of casting and who will be playing Rao in the web series, Aravind said, "I think it is too early to talk about it because now we have started the pre-production. Prakash saab is occupied in finishing his latest project and once that is sorted we will sit down to zero down on one actor for the lead role. That apart we need to plan for the casting of the entire show for which I will have a discussion with Samir Saab, Prakash Saab before making the final announcement."

While the web series will be streaming on Aha OTT service for Telugu content, with this series, they have decided to expand the horizon with new content in a different language.

Asked if they have decided to release it on any other platform, Aravind shared, "Other than my platform Aha, on the national scale of its release, we understand that there are some of the prominent OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ Hotstar, SonyLIV etc. But we will have to take a collective decision on that matter.

"You see this is not a commissioned project by any platform, it is an independent web series that will go on the platform once the product is ready. So, currently, our focus is pre-production and eventually, we will decide the platform for its nationwide release."