Pooja Hegde on board for Vijay Deverakonda's Jana Gana Mana

Actor Pooja Hegde has been roped in as the female lead in Puri Jagannadh's upcoming pan-India entertainer Jana Gana Mana. She will be paired opposite Vijay Deverakonda, who plays an Army officer in the film.

"Puri was keen to cast Pooja for the part and has recently given a narration. She liked her role as well as the script and signed on the dotted line. She has allotted 45 days for the shoot and is likely to join the sets in July," says a source, adding, "Major portion of the film will be shot in Europe and the makers are determined to complete the entire production by March 2023."

Initially, Puri wanted to cast Janhvi Kapoor for the female lead's role, but things never worked out. Grapevine suggests that the iSmart Shankar director is also considering Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn for prominent roles.

Produced by Puri Connects in association with Charmmee Kaur and Vamshi Paidipally, Jana Gana Mana will release in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam on August 3, 2023. In addition to this film, Pooja will also be seen in Mahesh Babu's SSMB 28 to be directed by Trivikram Srinivas.