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Jyotika stars in English movie

Shooting has begun on Little John, in interior Tamil Nadu.

The full-length comedy is being produced, as a multilingual (Tamil, English and Hindi) by Media Dreams, the movie-wing of Pentafour. Singeetham Srinivasa Rao directs.

The film tells the tale of a young American who comes to India to imbibe local culture. He stays in the home of a local, falls in love with the girl of the house, encounters a tantrik, and is reduced to the size of a pygmy.

That is the basic premise. What happens to him from there on forms the rest of the movie.

Playing the title role of Little John is British actor Benchley Mitchem. The female lead is Jyotika, and the role of the tantrik is being played by Anupam Kher.

Singeetam Srinivasa Rao as director makes sense for a comedy-driven project of this kind, when you recall that among his earlier works are the likes of the silent film Pushpak, starring Kamal Hassan and Amala, and Apoorva Sahodarargal (Appu Raja in the dubbed Hindi version), again with Kamal heading the cast.

Equally, Pentafour brings to the home project its special FX expertise. And the dialogues of 'Crazy' Mohan -- the TN industry's premier purveyor of laugh riots.

While the male star is an unknown, the project gets its box office clout from the presence of Jyotika, now firmly installed as the leading female artiste in the Tamil industry, with the male leads vying to have her as co-star in their projects. Ongoing productions featuring her include Thenali, the Kamal Hassan comedy, and Snegithiye, a Priyadarshan multi-lingual with an all-woman cast.

Due for imminent release is also Rhythm, wherein she plays a cameo by way of "saying thanks" to director Vasanth, the man who gave her the celluloid image of Ms Bubbles, that catapulted her to stardom, in Poovellaam Kettupaar.

Interestingly, though her only Hindi film thus far, Doli Sajake Rakhna (again with Priyadarshan at the helm) was a complete flop, she seems to have caught the public imagination outside of Tamil Nadu as well. Witness her starring role alongside Aamir Khan in the latest Coke commercial, where she replaces Aishwarya Rai as Coke's girl model.

The project is expected to be completed in early 2001.