Right as the year begins, seems like we are in for a treat with back to back big releases. Nanban, remake of the Bollywood blockbuster Three Idiots, is directed by Shankar and has no less than an ensemble star cast including Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth. To call it the most expected movie of the year is naive, especially when the year has just started. But there's no denial to the fact that Nanban is riding high on expectations both from Vijay and Shankar fans. Not to mention, the movie's success in Hindi and Chetan Bhagat's best seller book's super success upon which it is based on.

Nanban is also Shankar's first remake. Shankar has always relied on his original stories and it's quite unusual for a director of his caliber to embark on a remake project. It is said that Shankar got the idea of remaking this movie after he watched it on DVD during the shoot breaks of his blockbuster film Endhiran. He fell in love with it immediately that he decided to remake it. He bought the rights and started the project soon after with Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth in the lead.

This film also marks Ileana's reentry into Tamil. She has not been seen in the industry after her appearance in Kedi a few years ago although there are rumors every now and then about her possible Tamil project. Nanban's ensemble star cast also includes Sathyaraj, Anuya, S J Surya, Raghava Lawrence, Uma Padmanabhan and Manobala.

Nanban's music launch was held without much fanfare in an engineering college in Coimbatore. Sound track as well as teaser trailers of songs have been receiving positive responses ever since. The six songs Harris scored for the movie are not exactly replicas of the original versions but Harris has given his nice touch to each one of them thereby regionalising them.

Certified as U, without any cuts by the Censor Board, Nanban will be distributed by Gemini Film Circuit. Advance bookings have already begun and a Telugu version is also being released on January 26th.