Salman Khan's 'Ready'

Bollywood super star Salman Khan last week arrived in Sri Lanka to commence shooting the film Ready.

Initially scheduled to be shot on location in Mauritius, Khan’s Ready was shifted to Sri Lanka within a matter of days after the Bollywood star’s visit to Sri Lanka to attend the IIFA awards earlier in the month.

The film director Anees Bazmee’s decision to shift the shooting of the movie from Mauritius to Sri Lanka came amidst much protest from the South Indian film industry, which has now threatened to boycott Ready once released.

Khan’s firm decision to shoot Ready in Sri Lanka and support to build the country’s image amidst such protest has however helped score brownie points with his Bollywood fans in Colombo.

Khan arrived in the country last week with a cast and crew of 140. Star of the movie Ghajini, Asin, is to star opposite Khan in the movie. Asin had earlier starred alongside Khan in the movie London Dreams.

Some of the other cast members of Ready are Manoj Pahwa, Anooradha Singh, Sharat Saxena, Manoj Joshi, Rajiv Kachroo, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Eva Grover, Paresh Rawal, et al.

The Ready crew has already identified several locations in Colombo and outskirts to shoot the movie. The location for shooting last Thursday (24) was Cinnamon Lakeside.

Khan made his entrance to the Lakeside hotel around 3.30 p.m. from the Taj Samudra Hotel where he is residing, flanked by four security personnel from the Ministerial Security Division (MSD).

Members of the crew directed him to the location site, which was by the pool and towards the Beira Lake.

The area instantly attracted hundreds of fans including hotel staff, who stood gazing adoringly at Khan, who at ease, nonchalantly munched short eats as he worked.

Once the shooting got underway, The Sunday Leader sat down with Line Producer of Ready and head of Film Location Services (Pvt) Limited, veteran film maker Chandran Ratnam.

Ratnam said that a cast and crew of 140 had arrived in the country to shoot Ready.

“After the IIFA, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board had invited him to shoot his new movie in Sri Lanka and since Salman had enjoyed the country, he had agreed to shift to Colombo from Mauritius,” Ratnam said.

He said that the 30-day shoot is to be carried out at Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, Water’s Edge, Taj Exotica in Bentota (not confirmed yet) and another lakeside location, which is yet to be identified.

The Story Line In Ready

Prem (Salman Khan) is the heir to the company Frangnance perfumes owned by the Bandari brother’s – Gautam, Rishi and Rajveer. The eldest Gautam has no issue. Rishi has married off his only daughter and Prem is Rajveer’s only son and is therefore the only heir to the company.

Prem, still a bachelor wants to enjoy life before getting married and his father does not approve of this. It’s Gautam and Rishi who side Prem and treat him as their son.

Sanjanna (Asin), an orphan lands in India to be with her uncles – Narendra and Tulsi who both are greedy and want to gulp down their niece’s property, which Sanjana had inherited.

Prem falls for Sanjana and decides to teach her uncles a lesson. Both uncles who are sworn enemies want Sanjana to get married to their respective brothers-in-law, so that they can get Sanjana’s property. But Prem makes a fool of them by getting friendly with them and then bringing his full family posing off as billionaires, and traps them by getting the uncles’ brothers-in-law to marry house maids.

For the sake of his son’s love Rajveer too poses as a bank manager and tells the uncles that the day Sanjana’s parent died, her parent’s owed the bank billions of dollar and says that they either sell their property or disown the girl.

To get rid of Sanjana they trap Prem… so that once he marries Sanjana… it is Prem who has to clear off the debts.

But on the day of the marriage, Prem’s game gets exposed and both the uncles’ brothers-in-law want revenge.

Finally Prem manages to put sense in to the two brothers that they had promised their sister (Sanjana’s mother) at the time of her death, that they would look after Sanjana as their own daughter. They then realise their greed and Prem inherits the property.