TN Directors scouting for foreign locales

CHENNAI: The exotic locales of foreign shores seem to be beckoning Tamil film directors if recent movie blockbusters are any indication.

Earlier, the practice was to can one or two song sequences on foreign locations, industry sources said.

The 2007-Ajit starrer 'Billa', a remake of the 1980 Rajinikanth movie by the same name, was shot extensively in Malaysia. 'Unnale, Unnale', 'Vegam' and the recently released Kamal Hassan movie 'Dasavatharam' are other examples.

"Nearly 35 per cent of the Dasavatharam sequence has been shot abroad," Kamal Haasan said after his film's release, for which he hired Hollywood specialists for the make-up and stunt sequences. Well-known ad filmmaker Latha Menon said "shooting in foreign locales has become the trend now."

Ace filmmaker Shankar and his cinematographer Rathinevelu had visited Australia, Vienna, Brazil, Rio De Janeiro and Hanoi to fix a location before starting shooting on 'superstar' Rajinikanth-starrer 'Robot'.

According to industry sources, if they get the desired location, shooting will begin in August.

Films of actors like Surya, Vikram, Vijay and Prasanna are also to be shot abroad.

Vijay is set to fly to Italy for 'Villu' directed by Prabhu Deva. This is the second movie the two have come together after the stupendous success of 'Pokkiri'. Vijay's heroine in the movie is Shreya.

'Kanthaswamy' directed by Susi Ganesan in which Vikram and Shreya play the lead roles is being shot in Mexico.

K V Anand's 'Ayyan' features Surya and Tamanna. That is also being shot abroad, industry sources said.