Actor Shanthanu Bhagyaraj lastly entertained audiences in the sports drama Blue Star helmed by S Jayakumar with actors Ashok Selvan and Keerthi Pandian in lead roles. Malayalam actor Shane Nigam made his debut in Kollywood earlier this year via Madraskaaran. Both the stars will soon be seen together on screens in the Tamil Malayalam bilingual entertainer titled Balti. Debutant director Unni Sivalingam has written and directed the film. He has co-written the dialogues of the project with writer T D Ramakrishnan.
Actress Preethi Asrani of Ayothi fame has been cast as the female lead in the entertainer. Renowned film maker Alphonse Puthren has depicted a negative role in the drama. The shoot for the venture took place across various regions of Pollachi, Coimbatore, and Palakkad. The production house has already announced that the flick will be making it to theaters on 26th of September.
The makers had recently dropped the character introduction glimpse video of actor Shanthanu Bhagyaraj on social media. They have now released the trailer of the movie. Taking to his official X account, actor Shanthanu Bhagyaraj himself dropped a couple of special posters along with a link to the trailer of Balti and captioned it, “Life is the battlefield, survival is the sport. Balti (Tamil) Trailer out – Watch now! BALTI from September 26. A Sai Abhyankkar musical. Shane Nigam, Alphonse Puthren, Selvaraghavan, Preethi Asrani, Unni Sivalingam.” Here is the post made by the actor.
The nearly two and a half minutes long trailer of Balti begins with a voiceover, “The Velampalayam boys are nothing but rogues. Among them, there are four . . . One is Dubki. One is Scorpion kick. One is dash. And the last one . . . that ends the game . . . Balti.” The scene cuts to a cop warning them, “I know exactly how to lock you all up.”
We then have the intro of actress Preethi Asrani who asks Shane Nigam, “When you saw me in court, why did you lose your focus?” He responds, “I saw you. Then you looked at me, I lost all focus.” Following which we have a woman saying, “I know everything. And all four of you stand with me. He is Soda Babu’s man. Choose wisely.”
We are introduced to Alphonse Puthren, who says, “Hey boys! Before this, you have played in many courts. But this is Babu’s court. Here, I make the rules.” The shot cuts to actor Selvaraghavan chiding, “How can you do this with no guilt? Team Panchami is not meant to play inside the court. Their game is outside!” Subsequently we witness Shanthanu Bhagyaraj asking Shane Nigam, “Hit them? or Break them?” He replies, “Hit first, then break.”
Apart from Shane Nigam, Shanthanu Bhagyaraj, and Preethi Asrani, the casting unit of the drama also has director Selvaraghavan, Shiva Hariharan, Nivin Mirror, Nandita Sandeep, Vijay Bhargav, and Nivek Mirror in various supporting roles. Music director Sai Abhyankkar has handled musical instruments for the drama. A single titled ‘Jaalakaari’ is out from the album. Cinematographer Alex J Pulickal has operated cameras for the movie.
Editor Shivkumar V Panicker has overseen the editing department of the project. Art director Ashik S has fashioned the background for the flick. Stunt directors Action Sandhosh and Vicky have designed action blocks for the entertainer. The film is produced by Santhosh T Kuruvilla under the production house STK Frames in collaboration with Binu George Alexander for the production label Binu George Alexander Productions.
On the professional front, actor Shanthanu Bhagyaraj is currently busy shooting for his future venture Magenta helmed by Bharath Mohan in which he will be teaming up with actress Anjali Nair. Actress Preethi Asrani is occupied in her upcoming project christened Killer crafted and headlined by S J Suryah.
On the other hand, actor Shane Nigam is presently working on a couple of Malayalam films Aayirathonnam Ravu directed by story teller Salam Bappu, Haal filmed by Prasanth Vijayakumar, and Painkili crafted by director Devan. Beside these ventures, he has his long-delayed entertainers Parakramam directed by Arjun Ramesh in which he has shared screen space with actress Sona Olickal, and Qurbani helmed by director V Geo in which he will be seen alongside actress Aarsha Chandhini Baiju in the shelve waiting for release.
