Sreejith Vijay knocks off pounds to play Sai Baba

Mollywood actors seem to be the pick of the season in other film industries too — be it Mohanlal, Nivin Pauly, Keerthy Suresh or Anupama Parameswaran.

The latest in the list is

Rathinirvedam

actor Sreejith Vijay who has bagged the lead role in the upcoming biopic on Puttaparthi

Sai Baba

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Earlier Dileep was supposed to play the spiritual guru while Sreejith was to essay only his younger years. However, Dileep dropped out of the project a few months ago due to scheduling conflicts. This prompted director Kodi Ramakrishna to continue with the young actor for the entire film, titled Baba Sathya Sai, which shows the life of the spiritual guru from a 25 to an 80-year-old.
On his preparations for the role, Sreejith tells us, “I have shed a few kilos because Baba had a lean physique. Also I have been watching a lot of his videos to get the mannerisms and body language right.”

The team has already finished shooting the first 20 minutes of the movie, which shows the guru’s younger days. “Those portions were canned a few years ago and Sukumari ma’am was part of those scenes as well. So, this movie would technically be her last film,” says Sreejith, about the late actress who passed away in 2013.
The movie, which also has Jaya Prada and Sarath Babu playing Baba’s parents, has an extensive schedule of 150 days stretching the shoot up to April 2017. The film, a multi-lingual, will be released in all the four South Indian languages.