A red letter day for Siddhanth

For young actor Siddhanth, this is a day of mixed emotions. For starters, his second and most prestigious project, the Om Prakash Rao-directed AK-56 hitting theatres on Feb 10, 2012.
And secondly, it���������s a day of reckoning for him when audiences watch Sandalwood���������s most expensive film yet, as it takes on competition from not one or two, but three other Kannada films.
Siddanth, however, is feeling rather positive. ���������'AK-56' is director Om Prakash���������s 25th film and he wanted to do a film with a difference. Years ago, he had made a film called 'AK-47 'starring Shivarajkumar, which was a big hit. That film had a mix of action and drama and AK-56 sort of follows up on that. There is a lot of action, yet it remains a film for family audiences,��������� says Siddanth.
The title, explains Siddanth, has been inspired by a real incident, in which Pakistani troops dropped AK-56 artillery in a remote village of Punjab. And hence, the film deals with terrorism.
���������I play a youth who unwittingly gets caught in a terrorism plot, and is branded a terrorist. For the most part, the film is about my character���������s struggle to prove his innocence. It is also about the problems faced by his near and dear ones during this period,��������� he explains.
���������Which also means that the film is not just about him,��������� says Siddanth. ���������Shirin, Sumalatha Ambareesh, Suchindra Prasad and Bollywood actor Atul Kulkarni, who plays the antagonist, all have ample screen time,��������� he adds.
The film, adds Siddhanth, has been in the news for its budget. A reported 12 cr has been spent on the making.
���������This is Om Prakash���������s film far more than it is mine. He wanted his film to be grand and that requires money. Yes, we did overshoot the allotted budget, but I can assure audiences that the money has been well spent. There are instances like a chase scene that we shot with some 35-odd cars, as many bikes and two helicopters. We couldn���������t cut costs on such a sequence,��������� says Siddanth, adding that there are many more such shots which required a lot of money, not just to shoot, but also in ensuring safety during the shooting.