The audio launch of Nanban

The music of the Tamil movie Nanban, which is the remake of superhit Hindi movie 3 Idiots was released recently in Coimbatore. In this picture actors Vijay, Shankar, Srikanth and Jeeva are seen at the function.

Team Nanban release the audio CDs.

Director of the movie Shankar takes centerstage.

Vijay speaks about the movie as Srikanth and Jeeva look on.

Vijay's father SA Chandrasekhar and Shankar at the event.

It's time for Srikanth to speak now.

Jeeva gets a chance to speak too.

Coming Up: Whacky invitation for Nanban's music launch

This colourful invitation for the music launch of Nanban, which is the Tamil remake of Raju Hirani-Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots,. has landed in our mailbox.

The music will be launched on December 23, 2011.

The music launch will be held at the Hindustan College, Coimbatore.

Coming up: First Look: Shankar's comic caper Nanban

Nanban (meaning Friend) is an upcoming Tamil comedy drama film, which is an adaptation of the 2009 megahit 3 Idiots. 3 Idiots, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, was itself adapted from the novel Five Point Someone by Chetan Bhagat.

The film is directed by S. Shankar and features an ensemble cast of Vijay, Jeeva, Srikanth, Sathyaraj and Ileana D'Cruz.

The shooting for the film began in March 2011 and is said to have been hauled up due to a delay in finalising the cast.

The film will also be dubbed into Telugu as 3 Rascals.

Harris Jayaraj has given the music for the film and it was his second stint with director Shankar after Anniyan (2005).

The film has a stellar cast with Vijay, Jeeva, Srikanth in the lead. Supporting them will be Sathyaraj, Ileana D'Cruz, S. J. Suryah, Sathyan, Kishore, Anuya Bhagvath, Lawrence Raghavendra, Manobala and others.

When the cast was being finalised, a special screening for the film industry was held. Vijay had then expressed his desire to work in the film, and was signed up by Gemini Film Circuits to play the lead role.

However, by mid-December 2010, post the trial shoots , Vijay walked out the film citing disputes over his dates as the reason.

Suriya was then billed to replace him but the talks with the actor failed.

While many speculated the reason for his walking away from the role, Suriya revealed that he had opted out only because of other film commitments and "did not want to keep Shankar waiting."

As a result, Vijay was once again finalised for the role.

The casting for the other two titular characters also took considerably long.

While Madhavan was initially approached to reprise his role from the original, the actor said he was unwilling citing the film had already "gone down in history".

And while it was rumoured Udhayanidhi Stalin had replaced Madhavan, the reports turned out to be false. Subsequently, Srikanth was signed to play the role after seeing his performance in Drohi.

Sharman Joshi's role was originally offered to Silambarasan, but he Silambarasan could not associate himself with the character and hence turned it down. The role was then offered to Siddharth, but he too refused the project.

Jeeva was signed to play Sharman Joshi's role in the end.

The role played by Kareena Kapoor in the original, was reportedly offered to Shruti Haasan and Asin to begin with but talks are said to have failed. The producers of the film were also said to have been keen on Katrina Kaif but after the actress turned it down, the role went to Ileana D'Cruz.

The first schedule of filming was held in Ooty. The second schedule involved a car chase sequence and it was shot at various places including Chennai, while two songs were filmed in London and Buckingham during the third schedule.

The film's audio is set to release this December whereas the film will be released on January 14, 2012.