May 21, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Ram Gopal Varma has put his proposed Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bhudda: Don’t F…K With Him directed by Telugu cinema’s most successful director Puri Jagannath, on the back burner.

Instead, Varma and Puri are getting together to produce and direct Suriya in The Businessman.

Says Puri Jagaanath, “It’s the story of a gangster’s journey from Chennai to Mumbai in three languages Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.”

Puri has written the screenplay on his own. Strangely, none of the three individuals helming the project is fluent in Hindi.

Jagannath, who is the highest-paid director of the South with an enviable track-record of Telugu blockbusters, admits there is a linguistic problem in creating The Businessman in Hindi. “I agree, I don’t know the language. Neither does Ramu nor Suriya. But I don’t think that would be a problem.”

Ram Gopal Varma, who will produce the film is far more forthright, “I’d have you know that Murugadoss who made Ghajini and Prabhu Deva who directed Wanted, didn’t even know the Hindi alphabet and couldn’t speak a word of Hindi. I think we’ll manage quite well.”

The Businessman will start shooting in September.

Jagannath, who’s a cult name in Telugu cinema, is relocating to Mumbai to be able to acclimatize himself with Bollywood.

Says the softspoken Telugu director, “Many years ago also, I tried to crack the Hindi market with a film Shart starring Tusshar Kapoor. That was a disaster. So I see The Businessman as my true beginning in Bollywood.”

– Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire