The race to romance Sirish

Lata Srinivasan, TNN Apr 16, 2012, 11.06AM IST

(Sirish )

Many names are cropping up in the race for the actor's big bilingual debut

As is known now, Sirish is likely to star in director Radha Mohan's bilingual project. Hailing from an illustrious movie family, this young actor is the son of producer Allu Aravind and brother of actor Allu Arjun. He is all set to make his debut in the Tamil-Telugu film and expectations are high. But the big question is who will bag the role opposite him?

Considering this is Sirish's debut, the heroine plays a key role. Actress Amala Paul's name has been doing the rounds recently. Her recent Tamil success and her relative popularity in Andhra Pradesh post Love Failure (the Telugu version of Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi) makes her a strong contender. However, industry sources say she has not been signed on yet.

Apparently, the filmmakers want to cast someone who can not only speak Tamil but who can also make a great pair with Sirish. The buzz is that other names being seriously considered are the 180 girls - Nithya Menen and Priya Anand. The source adds that some Kannada heroines like Nidhi Subbaiah and Aindrita Ray were thought about but they didn't quite make the cut. We'll just have to wait and watch who'll romance the young actor in the end! THE GAURAVAM STORY

Initially Radha Mohan had chosen Naga Chaitanya as part of his next venture, Gauravam, which was a Tamil-Telugu bilingual. Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar was touted to be his leading lady in the film. While the filmmaker had reportedly finalized his cast in January and was all set to start shoot, this change in the cast of the film has come in as a real surprise. While a few sources mention the recent Kollywood strike as one of the reasons for the change, the real reason still remains elusive.