ACTOR JIIVA : CHINA REFUSED VISA

CHINA SAYS

NO TO JIIVA !

Actor Jiiva has been refused a visa by the Chinese Embassy and it seems to be all in the name

When K V Anand replaced Simbu with Jiiva for his Ko, he thought his troulbes were over. The director settled on Jiiva on an emergency basis because the schoot of a song was fixed for February 10 in northeast China, bordering  Monglia. However, the latest is that the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi has refused to issue a visa to Jiiva, thereby throwing Anand's song schedule out of gear.

When contacted, Jiiva kept mum on why he was denied a Chinese visa. According to sources, Jiiva's name is Amar Chowdhary of his passport, a Muslim sounding name. And it so happens that shoot was to take place in an area that is witnessing  ethnic strife.

Despite this development. Anand and his 20 unit members (including heroine Karthika) went ahead and shot in the scenic locales of China for five days and came back to the city on Sunday. Says Anand, specking exclusively to CT, "we shot in and around Harbin, the tenth largest city in China a place where no Indian film has been shot before." Parts of a song were pecturised on Karthika by cinematographer Richard Natahn and choreographer Gayatri Reghy in freezing harish weather conditions.

Anand adds, "We shot on the eve of the Chinese New Year. We'll go back and shoot with Jiiva at a latter stage. While all of us were going on a work visa, we had applied for a short-term visa for Jiiva as he came into the project only at the last minute. We were told at the Chinese Embassy that short-term visa had to be issued by Beijing derectly and it would take time as it was the New Year season there."

Anand might also have to find alternate locations in India for Ko.Which has a strong autobiographical feel as it is about the life of a Chennai-based magazine photographer.