Director Prem, who managed to bring together two big stars — Sudeep and Shivarajkumar — for The Villain, has since taken time to prepare for his next project. The filmmaker has announced that his next project will launch his wife Rakshitha's brother, Abhishek Rao as the male lead. 

In a conversation with CE, Prem says, "Abhishek is an engineer by profession, who has received training in acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. He got hands-on shooting experience during the making of The Villain. Now, he is camera-ready."

Speculation has been rife that the film will be titled Excuse Me (Prem’s 2003 film also had the same title). However, the director rubbishes this, saying that the team is yet to come up with a title. "The film is a musical based on a true love story, and it will have music by Arjun Janya," he adds. 
   
The search is currently on for a new heroine, and this time, Prem is determined to cast a Kannada actor. "A complaint I often hear from movie-goers and the film fraternity is that I prefer heroines from outside. With this film, I want to do things differently, by introducing a girl from Karnataka," says the director, who also plans to rope in yesteryear heroes from Hindi and Kannada to play important characters in the film.