Madhu Mantena’s Phantom Films partners with Allu Aravind and Sreenivasa Kumar Naidu for a Hindi remake of the 2023 Telugu hit Baby.
Phantom Films Joins Hands With Allu Aravind For Hindi Remake Of Anand Deverakonda’s Baby
Madhu Mantena’s newly-revived production house Phantom Films is on a roll. Several films are under production or in pre-production.
The latest we hear is that Mantena’s Phantom has joined hands with one of Telugu cinema’s most successful and distinguished producers Allu Aravind for a remake of the 2023 Telugu blockbuster Baby which starred Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya.
Significantly this would be Mantena and Aravind’s second collaboration after Ghajini in 2008. Ghajini featuring Aamir Khan was one of the biggest blockbusters of all time.
Joining Madhu Mantena and Allu Aravind as co-producer in the remake is Sreenivasa Kumar Naidu who produced the original Baby in Telugu.
When this writer contacted Sreenivasa Kumar Naidu, he confirmed, “Yes, Sir Baby is going to be remade into Hindi. We are collaborating with two of the best producers of Indian cinema Allu Aravind and Madhu Mantena. The USP of Baby was the underexposed cast. Both Anand Deverakonda and Vaishnavi Chaitanya were relatively unknown faces. They had done films before. But Anand was known as Vijay Deverakonda’s brother and Vaishnavi’s work was unrecognized. Similarly, we want unexposed faces in the Hindi remake, although let me tell you, some of the biggest star children in Bollywood want to do the Hindi remake of Baby.”
Baby in Telugu broke all the rules of the Indian rom-com. The Baby of the plot, Vaishnavi, is no damsel in distress. Played with spunk and swag by semi-newcomer Vaishnavi Chaitanya she is a wannabe social climber who has been in love with her slum-beloved Anand from Class 8. There are many sequences in this surprisingly thought-provoking and well-crafted film that leave a deep impression.