Newcomer Ranulal final lead in Krisnamurty's 'Rusgulay'

Tinku Gonzalves – A.P.
Oct/09/05
After months of deliberation K.K. Krisnamurthy has cast Ranulal Swamikumar in his next venture, ‘Rusgulay’. This fourth (and last casting) is being publicized 2 months after Krisnamurty had already announced that Mohanlal, Arvind Swami, and Ajith Kumar would play the other 3 leading roles in his film.

Interestingly however, Ranulal had not actually formally auditioned for the role. Word has it that Ranulal, originally from Toronto, Canada, was spotted by Krisnamurty in a Madras bazaar. Ranulal addresses this for us.

“Yes, this is true. I was vacationing throughout India and came to Madras to meet up with some friends. One evening we decided to go out to the bazaar. Some horseplay between my friends and I led to my upper lip being covered with chocolate ice cream. As I was walking to the washroom to cleanup I was approached by 3K-ji. It was very embarrassing! When you’re on foreign soil and you don’t really fit in because you’re a little overweight, and then on top of that you’re approached by a celebrity while you’ve got ice cream on your face, it’s quite embarrassing you know,” Ranulal said laughingly.

As it turns out, his weight and the ice cream stain that night is what has Krisnamurty believing that Ranulal will be the next great South Indian actor. “He is a great find for me. Ranulal has grown a mustache and put on another 10 pounds at our request. He has already changed his name to adapt to his new surroundings and so we’re confident that we can successfully launch him into superstar stardom with my next release. He is exactly what the public wants. What the audience here loves,” stated Krisnamurty.

So far so good. Krisnamurty's forecast is proving to be quite accurate as Ranulal posters are already appearing in the bedrooms of many teenage girls throughout the southern states.

Although very little is known about ‘Rusgulay’ itself, word has it that that the film will be made in black and white, and will not star any leading ladies.