Bollywood actress Sameera Reddy will reportedly play the female lead in director Gautham Menon’s Tamil film ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’.

There has been much shuffling in the cast of Vaaranam Aayiram (means ‘A Thousand Elephants’). First, Bollywood newcomer Deepika Padukone was considered to play the lead opposite the film’s hero Surya, but she did not have required dates to spare because she was busy with Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om.

After Deepika, Genelia was finalized for the part, but she too bowed out of the project for reasons better known to herself.

Now, director Gautham Menon is reported to have finalized and signed Sameera Reddy.

Sameera has already acted in a few Telugu films. She has been in the news of late for her performances in filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Bengali films.

Besides Sameera, ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’ has one more actress, most likely Divya.

The movie will be shot in India, US, Russia, Malaysia and Afghanistan. Gautham Menon describes the film as his own version of Tom Hanks’ blockbuster ‘Forrest Gump’.