Actor Mamitha Baiju, who has been a notable face in the Malayalam film industry, gained a massive fan following and foothold in Tamil and Telugu industries after her impressive performance as Reenu in Girish AD's Premalu (2024). Since then, the offers for her been filling her kitty to the brim, but director Keerthiswaran admits to have spotted her talent way before Premalu. Ahead of the release of his debut film Dude, starring Pradeep Ranganathan in the lead, he revealed that he loved her performance in Super Sharanya and decided to cast her as the female lead in the film.
In an interview with SS Music, Keerthiswaran said, "When I finalised the project with the producer, I was contemplating whom to choose as the female lead. I was scrolling Instagram one day when I spotted a reel on Super Sharanya. Premalu didn't release at that time. I liked her attitude. It landed for me and I felt that her energy was needed in my film as well. The producer also agreed to my choice. Then, within two weeks, Premalu released and her popularity soared to great heights. She was a sensation. I met her and narrated the story."
He further stated, "It was a nice experience working with her as she was highly committed. Mamitha is also an emotionally sensitive person. She understood many nuances in the story."
Written and directed by Keerthiswaran, Dude is produced by Naveen Yerneni and Y Ravi Shankar, with Anil Yerneni serving as the co-producer. Mythri Movie Makers is the banner backing the film. Apart from Pradeep Ranganathan and Mamitha, the cast for the film includes R Sarath Kumar, Hridhu Haroon, Rohini, Aishwarya Sharma, and Dravid Selvam, among others.
The trailer, which was released on Thursday, showed Pradeep Ranganathan's character Agan falling in love with Kural (Mamitha Baiju). But Kural isn’t keen on pursuing a romantic relationship with him. From there, the trailer shows us several cuts of Agan going through love, loss and healing until he comes to a realisation about life.
Sai Abhyankkar makes his Tamil cinema debut as a composer with Dude. The rest of the crew of the film includes Niketh Bommi as the cinematographer, Barath Vikraman as the editor, Latha Naidu as the production designer, and Yannick Ben and Dinesh Subbarayan as the stunt choreographers. Dude is slated for release in theatres on October 17 where it will clash with Dhruv Vikram-Mari Selvaraj's Bison and Harish Kalyan's Diesel.
Mamitha is meanwhile the hotshot in the Tamil industry with major films lined up for her including Vijay's much-awaited Jana Nayagan, Dhanush's untitled D54, directed by Vignesh Raja, and Suriya 46 with Venky Atluri.
