I have been hesitant to take up remakes: Bhavana  

The actor has been paired opposite Ganesh in 99, the Kannada remake of the Tamil hit, 96, which starred Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha in the lead 
I have been hesitant to take up remakes: Bhavana  

While Trisha's performance in the Tamil film 96 was lauded by everyone, the makers of 99 have chosen Bhavana to reprise Trisha's role in the Kannada remake.

Bhavana said ‘yes’ to the role even before watching the original version. “I know Ganesh and his wife Shilpa, from the time we worked together in Romeo. Since I also know that the combination of Ganesh and director Pretham Gubbi work well, I decided to go ahead with the project. I watched the original film just three days ago, and I was completely impressed.” 

The actor has hardly worked on remakes. Out of the 78 films she has done, Yaare Koogadali, co-starring Puneeth Rajkumar, is the only remake in her career. “I have not attempted remakes in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, either because of date issues or the story not being appealing to me. I have been hesitant to take up remakes, especially reprising a role, which has already been appreciated,” says Bhavana, adding, “I guess everything fell in place for 99, that's the reason I took up the role."

She points out that  96 does not have the typical hero, heroine, glittery songs, or stunts. “It is like a summary of life, there’s nothing cinematic about it. 96 just goes back in time to the 90s. It’s about two people falling for each other. Youngsters of this era don’t know the anticipation of a love letter. On the whole, the film takes all of us back to the era of waiting in college verandas and passing on messages through friends,” she says. 

Bhavana began acting in cinema at a very young age and she had to drop out in Class 10. “I couldn’t go to college because I started acting at the age of 15. It was all about travelling and films,” she says. “I went to a convent school, where there were no boys in the corridor waiting for me with love letters. It was an all-girls school and all we did was study,” she adds.

Made under Ramu Enterprises, 99 will go on floors on December 17. The crew will be starting with the school portions, and Bhavana will join the sets in January. For the Kannada version, Preetham plans to retain the soul of the Tamil version, while giving it a slight twist. “As of now, I have no idea how my character will be placed. I was told it is not going to be an entire replica of the original,” Bhavana signs off. 
 

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