Kollywood is abuzz with news that ace director Mani Ratnam has signed the biggest ever deal in the history of south Indian cinema, to do a three-version film in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

His production company Madras Talkies is supposed to be in the final lap of negotiating a whopping Rs 120 crore deal with the Anil Ambani run Reliance Entertainment Big Picture, for all negative rights for three languages. Industry pundits say that if the deal takes place, it will be the biggest for a south Indian film producer and director.

Mani Sir, as he is known in Kollywood, has been quietly working on the script of this film since the release of his super hit Guru in January 2007. The elusive director, who never gives interviews, has been keeping a low profile after the demise of his younger brother G Sreenivasan, the moving spirit behind Madras Talkies.

The Hindi version will feature Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Govinda in a negative role. Confirming that he has signed up for the movie, Govinda told TNN: “I am actually doing a film with Mani Sir. Isn’t it every actor’s dream to work with him? We met recently and I heard about my role, which interested me a lot. It is an intense film and my role will definitely surprise the audiences.” Abhishek, who scored his first solo super hit with Guru, is all excited about this new untitled film, for which he has given bulk dates.

The Tamil and Telugu version will have Vikram doing Abhishek’s role while Aishwarya Rai will be the common heroine for all the three versions. It is going to be a tight rope walk for Ash as she has to juggle her dates with Shankar’s Rajinikanth-starrer Robot during the same period. The role to be performed by Govinda will be essayed by Pritviraj, who started his career in Tamil in a villain’s role in Kana Kandein. The supporting cast of actors would be different in each language. The film will start rolling in Karaikudi from September 10, and will also be shot in the forests of Madhya Pradesh.

In a way, Mani Ratnam will be going back to his roots. He is teaming up with his photographer from his early films PC Sreeram, the wizard of lighting in Indian cinema and the godfather to many well-known cinematographers. Mani’s ‘discovery’ A R Rahman will be composing songs for this film. Mani was unavailable for comment while the Reliance Entertainment Big Picture spokesman in Chennai refused to talk about the deal.