Prabhas’ Saaho will see Neil Nitin Mukesh as the antagonist

After the superhit Baahubali, actor Prabhas will start working on is Sujeeth’s directorial Saaho. While he plays the lead in the Telugu film, the makers has now roped in actor Neil Nitin Mukhesh to essay the role of the villain in the sci-fi action thriller, also written by Sujeeth.

Neil had earlier played negative characters in Players (2012), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015) and Wazir (2016). In Saaho, his part is the second most important after Prabhas, say sources. He will also be seen engaging in several hand-to-hand combats with the Telugu star in the film. “After Prabhas, Neil was the first artiste to be signed for Saaho. Also, so far, he’s the only member of the cast besides Prabhas. He has a powerful role,” DNA quoted a source close to the creative team as saying.

Given the importance of a villain in the plot of a drama, the makers of Saaho wanted someone who would do justice to the role. “Baahubali made everyone aware how important it is to balance out the moral conflict. Prabhas’ Baahubali act would have fallen flat if Rana’s (Rana Daggubati) madness as Bhallal did not spread itself out throughout the plot,” the source also added.

Earlier it was also reported that few action scenes of Saaho will be shot in Mumbai as the story of the film unfolds in the Maximum city. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will compose the music for the film that will be made in three languages Telugu, Tamil and Hindi, and will also be dubbed in Malayalam and English. Prabhas, who will be lending his voice for the Hindi dubbing, will be learning the language to get his diction correct.