Ekk Deewana Tha is an upcoming Hindi language romantic drama film, written and directed by Gautham Menon, featuring Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson, in her Bollywood debut, in the lead roles. This film is a remake of Gautham Menon's own Tamil film, Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, which also got remade into Telugu as Ye Maaya Chesave in 2010, featuring soundtrack and film score composed by A. R. Rahman, while the cinematography and editing are handled by M. S. Prabhu and Anthony Gonsalves, respectively. Singer Chinmayi has provided the talking voice of the female lead, reprising her role from the original Tamil version and the Telugu remake where she dubbed for actresses Trisha Krishnan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu respectively.


While on production stage, the film was titled Prem Katha, but was renamed as Ekk Deewana Tha, as the director wanted some abstract title for the movie, similar to the original. The film, produced by Fox Star Studios, Photon Kathaas and R.S. Infotainment is currently in post-production stage and will release on 17th February 2012.


Production (Development)

Gautham Menon started working on Ekk Deewana Tha, the Hindi remake of his Tamil film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, in 2011, with Prateik Babbar and Amy Jackson in the lead roles. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (Tamil) and Ye Maaya Chesave (Telugu), considered by many as path-breaking, gave an all-new image for the lead pair of Silambarasan (Simbu) and Trisha Krishnan, & Naga Chaitanya and Samantha. Though, the Hindi remake initially had Trisha Krishnan reprising her role, the actress was unceremoniously dropped from the project after a photo shoot and replaced by Amy Jackson, who shot to fame with the Tamil film Madrasapattinam.


Gautham Menon was trying out a 'look shoot' at the same locations where he shot Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, including a popular seaside restaurant on ECR, Chennai. A source close to the director said, "This shoot was just to get the 'feel' of the film. The actual shoot will take place in Mumbai from next month." According to the sources, A. R. Rahman's original tunes will be retained for Ekk Deewana Tha as well, while the film also features Gautham Menon's regular technical team, consisting of art director Rajeevan and editor Anthony Gonsalves.


Noted poet, story and screenplay specialist, Javed Akhtar recently was in Chennai, supervising the script and writing the lyrics for the film. A source close to the development said, "Javed saab and Gautham hit it off well. The lyricist's inputs will be taken into consideration as Gautham is particular that his film should not come across as a routine South Indian remake."


Amy Jackson, playing a Syrian Malabar Nasrani Christian in the film, said that, "I'm very kicked about working with Gautham Menon. I've seen VTV [Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa] at least 15 times. Ekk Deewana Tha is a perfect launch pad for me in Bollywood. He is a perfectionist and I know he will shape my character according to the needs and tastes of the Bollywood audience. I've begun the first schedule of the film and I'm planning to hire a Hindi tutor to help me sail through it."


Filming

The shooting of the film was to start in late-2010 but Prateik Babbar was busy with the promotions of Dhobi Ghat. Finally, the shooting of the film commenced in April 2011, with the entire cast and crew of the film in Mumbai. The shooting of the film has been progressing in various localities in Mumbai and the Ekk Deewana Tha team went down to Kerala and began the second schedule there in May 2011. Once the shooting of the film in Kerala was over, they went to Chennai in June 2011 to shoot few important scenes in Amethyst, Chennai, while, some of the songs are also scheduled to be shot in AVM Studios, Chennai. In July 2011, after the shooting of the film in Chennai was completed, the next schedule of the film was started at The Taj Mahal, Agra, while the shooting of the film was also held in Delhi.


Soundtrack
The soundtrack and film score for Ekk Deewana Tha is composed by A. R. Rahman, retaining the same tunes from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. The soundtrack album consists of lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar, collaborating with Gautham Menon for the first time. The soundtrack album was released at a luxury hotel in Agra, by A. R. Rahman on 21 December 2011, while the audio CD were in stores from 6 January 2012. MusicPerk rated the music album 8/10 quoting "If you are a first time listener, you will LOVE this! For those who are already in love with VTV and YMC songs, you should probably take the instrumentals and the first song alone"