MUMBAI: Rowdy Rathore’s maverick director Prabhu Deva is all set to do a Sonakshi Sinha on Shruti Haasan. The so-far luckless in Bollywood star from Luck will be relaunched in style and with substance to go, by Prabhu opposite Kumar Taurani’s  son Girish in a hard-hitting massy love story that begins shooting next month.

Prabhu Deva and Shruti go back a long way. Shruti’s father Kamal Haasan has worked closely with Prabhu’s choreographer-father.

Says a source, “Prabhu has taken on himself the onus of re-launching Shruti in Hindi.”

This ends the  hunt for a suitable co-star for producer Kumar Taurani’s son Girish . The untitled film is said to be “no Romeo & Juliet” romance since we’ve too many of those.

Efforts were on to find a completely new girl to star opposite the Taurani scion. But now they’ve gone for what is being called a “semi-newcomer”. Says a source, “Both Kumar Taurani and Prabhu Deva were keen on a new girl. But then it was felt that working on two newcomers simultaneously would take attention away from the male debutant’s launch. So the team decided on Shruti who is relatively new to Hindi cinema. But she’s already an established star in the South. She has done a couple of Hindi films that didn’t work. All she needs is that one hit.”

Confirming Shruti’s casting in his  post-Rowdy venture Prabhu Deva says, “We were thinking of a completely new girl. But Shruti seems a better option. She has everything that it takes.”

When asked what kind of a film the Girish-Shruti vehicle would be Prabhu Deva quipped, “As massy as ‘Rowdy Rathore’. That’s the only language I know. It’d targeted at  single-theatre audiences. But also for the multiplexes.”

Prabhu has moved to Mumbai as he has three back-to-back Hindi films to direct. But he hasn’t bought property as yet. “I am staying in Boney Kapoor’s old place in Green Acres as they’ve shifted to a new bungalow,” informs Prabhu.

– Subhash K. Jha