Rana Daggubati to spend three weeks with elephants for Haathi Mere Saathi!

Recent reports say that Rana Daggubati is all set to spend close to three weeks with elephants in Thailand for his movie for Haathi Mere Saathi. The trilingual movie Haathi Mere Saathi has Rana as a mahout. With the film set to be shot predominantly in Thailand, Rana is all set to spend close to three weeks with his co-stars – elephants – to prepare for his role. 

The film, to be directed by Prabhu Solomon, will be a modern-day take on Rajesh Khanna’s yesteryear classic Haathi Mere Saathi. Rana lost about 15 kg to play his role in the film. In an interview, Rana said that “Yes, I’ll need to do more for this film. I’ll be taking 15-20 days before the shoot to stay with the elephants in the jungle and get familiar with them before I start filming. At the same time, we are also doing a bunch of workshops because the story is inspired by two events, so we are trying to get as authentic as we can in the filming process.”  
The film, contrary to rumours, won’t be a remake of the classic. The only similarity between the two films will be the bond between elephants and human beings. Apart from Thailand, the makers will also shoot in Kerala and Delhi. The rest of the cast and crew are yet unknown. The makers are hoping to bring the film out for Diwali 2018.Inspired from true events, the remake will be directed by Prabhu Solomon who has earlier directed movies like Mynaa, Kumki, and Kayal. 

Rana has an interesting line up of projects. He recently announced that he’ll play Travancore king Marthanda Varma. To be directed by K Madhu, the pre-production work on the project is already underway. In his other period film 1945, he plays a soldier in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army.