|  If you're one of those movie buffs who went to watch the phenomenal Rajni in full form in Sivaji despite not understanding a single dialogue, its time to rejoice.
For the Boss is back and he's speaking your language. The process of dubbing for the Hindi version of Sivaji has begun. Confirms S C Babu, CEO, AVM Productions, the studio that hold the rights of the film's negative, "Yes, Rajni will dub for himself. AR Rahman will re-record the music, which will be mixed for the Hindi version. Swanand Kirkire is writing the dialogue for the film." Kirkire has earlier been the lyricist for films such as Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Parineeta and Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi .
"The director, Shankar, wanted Sivaji to sound like a Hindi film. I will get a literal translation of the dialogues, after which I will rewrite them as I think best. I'm taking up the movie as a challenge and hope to be done with the dialogues in 20 days," says Kirkire.
"Sivaji has been going strong for eight weeks now," reveals Nambirajan, who's distributing the film in North and West India. The Hindi version is slated to be a Diwali release, close to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya .
While Babu is quick to remind us that the negative rights (all rights) of the movie continue to remain with AVM Productions, the battle for distributing the Hindi version is hotting up with various studios being interested in getting their hands on it.
"The Hindi distribution rights should go for not less than Rs 20 crore," informs an insider. Rumour has it that UTV, Percept, Adlabs and Shemaroo are in the fray, with UTV and Percept being the frontrunners in this race.
A UTV spokesperson, of course, denies any interest in the movie at this stage. Interestingly, Adlabs already has a tie-up with Rajni for their 3D feature film Sultan the Warrior. "It is too early for us to talk of those who have shown interest in distributing the Hindi version," says Babu.
Hindi rights of the film will be sold for a period of 7 to 10 years. A few changes are also expected in the Hindi version. "Hindi film viewing audiences might not take kindly to a 3 hour 8 minute long film, so we're chopping off about 30 minutes," says Babu.
"These will essentially be some scenes that are culturally ethnic for Tamilians." There is also some talk of re-shooting some portion of the movie. "There's a lead-in to a song that had greats such as Sivaji Ganeshan and Kamal Hasan in the Tamil version and NTR and Balakrishnan in the Telugu version. Shankar is thinking of suitable Hindi movie greats to replace them, so that the movie can be viewed in the correct context," says Babu.
While no names have been finalised yet, some say the Big B might be approached for a special appearance.
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