Students shave heads for 'Ramanujan'

As many as 100 school and college students chose to partly shave off their heads for an upcoming biopic "Ramanujan", based on the life of popular mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan.

Produced by Camphor Cinema, the Indo-British collaboration venture is a period film based in the 1900 era. Director Gnana Rajasekaran wanted Tamil Brahmin boys with half-shaved heads with only top knots for the movie.

The filmmakers had to persuade Tamil Nadu's Vedic School and Kumbakonam Government college students who had come forward to act, to shave off their heads.

"It was indeed a task. Local students of Kumbakonam Government college, who came forward to act, weren't interested in shaving their heads. I explained the importance and seriousness of the film and requested the students to shave their heads as Ramanujan went to the same college as them," producer Vatsan Nadathur said in a statement.

The boys did not agree until assistant scriptwriter Roxane de Rouen and assistant director Nandita Rajasekaran decided to tell the boys that girls find bald men attractive, revealed Nadathur.

"The moment one of those men accepted, we immediately got that person's head shaved lest he change his mind," he added.

The film will track the journey of Ramanujan from Kumbakonam to Cambridge. Actor Abhinay Vaddi will be playing the lead role. It also features Bhama, Suhasini Mani Ratnam and British actor Kevin McGowan.

The movie is being simultaneously shot in Tamil and English.