Mani ropes in Malayalam comedian

His Kadal might have been rocked a bit by the walkout of the film's original heroine Samantha (who allegedly chose to come out of the project due to skin allergy), but Mani Ratnam has been quietly making progress. He replaced Samantha with actress Radha's younger daughter Tulasi (Karthika's sister) in no time and started shooting his film.
The latest we hear is that the ace director has signed on Malayalam comedian Baiju to be part of his Kadal.While we don't know what role the actor will be playing in the film, sources say that it will most likely be a character role.
Mani Ratnam's earlier films like Pagal Iravu and Agni Natchathiram had separate comedy tracks (the former featuring Goundamani and the latter Janakaraj) but generally, his films post Roja, the film which shot him to national prominence, have not had a separate comedy track. Even when he cast Vivekh in Alaipayuthey, it was for a very miniscule character role.
Kadal marks the debut of actor Karthik's son Gautham and has music by A R Rahman.