It wasn't totally unexpected but when it actually happened, it took many by surprise. The timing of the announcement caught many off their guards. Udhayanidhi, son of deputy chief minister Stalin and grandson of Kalaignar, is finally turning hero after remaining producer and distributor for the past few years.

Udhayanidhi is presently producing the Kamal-Trisha starrer 'Manmadhan Ambu' and the Aarya-Nayantara starrer 'Baas Engira Baskaran' (BEB). The shooting of the latter came to an end last week in Chennai and might soon hit the screens. Rajesh, the director of Baas Engira Baskaran, was reportedly very keen to cast Udhayanidhi as the hero in one of his future films.

Though he was reluctant at times, Udhayanidhi had to finally give in to Rajesh's wish after the latter narrated a 'gripping' story to the former and asked him to play the hero in the film, thereby making his debut in Kollywood as an actor. Udhayanidhi appeared to like the story a lot and after some cajoling by Rajesh, he agreed to play the hero in the film.

When asked as to how could he bring Udhayanidhi to accept to star as the hero when he turned down K.S Ravikumar's similar idea early this year, pat comes the reply from Rajesh that he wanted to make a film with Udhayanidhi in the lead as he had made an impression among the youth with his clean image. "I met him one day and narrated a story to him and because he liked the script a lot, he agreed to star in the film in the lead role.

"It's a romantic story to the hilt. We would be starting work on the project after the release of 'Baas Engira Baskaran' which won't be far from now," said Rajesh. Obviously, Udhayanidhi's Red Giant Movies would be producing the film!