Jaanu preview: Will this Telugu remake of 96 live up to the original?

C Prem Kumar’s Telugu remake ‘Jaanu’, of his hit Tamil film ‘96’, starring Sharwanand and Samantha is hitting screens this Friday.

Jaanu Movie Review : This is not a feel-good film because it’s much heftier than that

The film tells the story of two high-school sweethearts K Ramachandra, played by Sharwanand and Janaki Devi alias Jaanu, played by Samantha, meeting at their high-school reunion. It sees them reminiscing about their childhood and wondering how life could’ve turned out differently for them. The Tamil original starred Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha in lead roles and was a massive hit when it released. The songs too were a hit and it remains to be seen if the same magic can be recreated for the remake.

The film sees cinematography by

Mahendiran Jayaraju

, editing by Praveen KL, dialogues by Mirchi Kiran and music by Govind Vasantha, who also composed the music for the Tamil original. The film has been certified and has a runtime of 151 minutes. The film will be set in Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad now, with a few key sequences shot in Kenya. Apart from the lead actors, Gouri G Kishan and Varsha Bollamma who also star in the original reprise their roles in the remake playing the younger version of Jaanu and Ram’s apprentice respectively.

When producer Dil Raju saw the teaser of ‘96’, he was blown away by it. So much so that he watched the first rush of the film. “I don’t understand Tamil but I watched the film even before it released and it felt like magic. I even showed the film to Nani and Bunny and they agreed. I immediately paid the producer 15 lakhs more than what he asked because the story is so pure,” he says. Director C Premkumar, who worked as the assistant cameraman for ‘Arya’ was brought on-board next.

While Samantha and Sharwanand have been cast in the remake, in lieu of Trisha and Vijay Sethupathi, Dil Raju reveals that the actors took some convincing to be brought on-board. “Sharwanand took a day to say yes but Samantha took some time because she was scared she’d be compared to Trisha. I convinced her she will bring her own talent to the film and she agreed,” he says, adding, “After the shoot began, she thanked me for bringing her on-board.”
It remains to be seen if ‘Jaanu’ will match up to ‘96’ despite having the same director helming the project.