The shooting of Superstar Rajinkanth starrer Petta directed by Karthik Subbaraj is progressing at a brisk pace in Varanasi. Malavika Mohanan, who was last seen in Majid Majidi’s Beyond The Clouds is the latest addition to the cast of Petta. Malavika shared the news on her Instagram page. Her post read, "It's with absolute delight and child-like glee that I announce my next project- 'Petta', with the main man of Indian cinema, Rajnikanth! ♥️♥️♥️ Directed by one of my favourite filmmakers, Karthik Subburaj, and produced by @sunpictures :)"

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It's with absolute delight and child-like glee that I announce my next project- 'Petta', with the main man of Indian cinema, Rajnikanth! ♥️♥️♥️ Directed by one of my favourite filmmakers, Karthik Subburaj, and produced by @sunpictures :)

A post shared by Malavika Mohanan (@malavikamohanan_) on Oct 17, 2018 at 7:06am PDT

In an interview to a leading newspaper, Malavika said, "I am very excited to work with Rajni Sir at such an early point of my career. It's an amazing role and is very challenging performance wise. It was even tougher for me because I don’t speak Tamil. But I wanted to be true to my character so I hired a language teacher and trained with her."

The team is currently shooting the flashback portions with a younger looking Rajinikanth in a set resembling Madurai erected in Varanasi. Petta boasts of an ensemble cast that includes Vijay Sethupathi, Trisha, Nawazuddin Siddique, Megha Akash, Bobby Simha, Simran, Guru Somasundaram, Sanath Reddy and Munish Kanth among others. The movie is produced by Sun Pictures and has Anirudh Ravichander for music.