Movie World
Shruti Haasan to portray a trained assassin in ‘Treadstone’
By Dinesh Kamath
Shruti Haasan has joined USA
Network’s Jason Bourne-universe series ‘Treadstone’. The show will follow fictional
CIA Black-Ops program Operation Treadstone, which was the program that created
superspy Jason Bourne, played by actor Matt Damon. Haasan, 33, joins Jeremy
Irvine and Brian J. Smith in the show, which recently started production in
Budapest. She will portray Nira Patel, a young woman in Delhi whose waitress
job serves as a cover for a dangerous double life as a trained assassin. Ben
Smith, a producer of the ‘Bourne’ franchise, has co-created the series with Tim
Kring.
Apart from Haasan, actors Michelle
Forbes, Patrick Fugit, Michael Gaston and Tess Haubrich have also boarded the
cast. The covert program uses behaviour modification protocol to turn recruits
into nearly superhuman assassins. The first season of the series will follow
sleeper agents across the globe as they are mysteriously 'awakened' to resume
their deadly missions. The pilot episode will be directed by Ramin Bahrani and
he will also executive produce the series alongside Kring, Ben Smith, Jeffrey
Weiner, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Justin Levy.
Shruti Haasan by playing an
assassin in American TV series based on Jason Bourne, joins the growing list of
Indian artistes on American television. The upcoming series is a spin-off on
the popular Jason Bourne series by Robert Ludlum. The actress is the latest in
a line of Indian talent from Priyanka Chopra and Vir Das to make an appearance
on American television. Haasan will play Nira Patel, whose waitressing job is a
cover for her deadly skills.
It is well known that the gorgeous
diva Shruti Haasan is multi-talented and multi-lingual too. She has aced acting
and singing and has been a part of a number of movies across different
languages in India. Now, Hollywood is beckoning this talented diva. She has
been roped in to play a part in the TV series Treadstone, which will be set in
the Jason Bourne universe. The four Jason Bourne movies saw Matt Damon playing
the titular role of a superspy. The story has Jason Bourne being created,
trained and deployed by the covert-ops program Operation Treadstone. Treadstone
is considered to be a program which uses behaviour modification to transform
newly recruited cadets into super-human assassins.
You’ve seen her grace the silver
screen in Hindi and south Indian films, but now, she has a bigger canvas and she’s
understandably thrilled to bits about it. She has these lovely agents in
America who send over stuff to her. This character is something she found
interesting right from the word go. She was in London in the middle of her
music shows and was so stressed with everything when shw got the call about
this role. But she is the kind of person who takes on as much as she can, so she
auditioned and a couple of weeks later, she got a call saying she got the part.
The show revolves around a CIA
Black ops programme called Treadstone. It’s a really nice team with a lot of
action and she is really excited for it. She is a recurring guest role. The
whole setup is amazing and they will start shooting soon. The preparation for
the show is mostly physical. It’s an action series - if you remember the
original films, it had some awesome action, so she will be doing a lot of
action training.
Interestingly, when Shruti heard
that she had bagged the role, she was spending time with her dad Kamal Haasan
in Chennai. He as usual was very nonchalant and said - good job. He normally
tells other people that he’s proud of her, he doesn’t tell her – typical Indian
dad. But he had been a major influence on the kind of choices she’s made so
far.
In fact, the legendary Kamal was
the one who asked her to take a break from doing so many films. She was doing
seven of them at one point and her dad said she must re-assess her career. He’s
someone who has brilliantly managed his career for several years, so she took
his advice and got back to music. He’s been encouraging and has never thought
that international borders are far away – he’s had a global way of thinking.
While the artiste has been busy
with her music shows in London and other places, she’s in no rush to put out a
half-baked project. She is enjoying playing for live audiences. And it’s
amazing to see that even though her music hasn’t released – the last time she
did a show, people sang along to the chorus.
On the Indian film front, Shruti
has Laabam, a Tamil film with Vijay Sethupathi. Having finished one schedule,
she’s thankful to be playing a modern but conscientious person.
A self-confessed TV show addict,
the spunky fashionista, if she had to choose a genre she’d like to explore as
an artiste, it would be sci-fi. She always loved aliens and doomsday theories
where society is challenged, where they take so many things for granted
including water, air and freedom.
As for her ardent set of fans who
keep showering her with love on social media, the actor can’t help but beam
with gratitude. They’re like her extended family. She had had the fortunate
experience of meeting some of them. She plans to have a fan meet soon.
The way [our] films are made, you
cannot make music leisurely. And so, the break helped Shruti. She has always
been experimental in her career. Taking that break was to find a balance
between music and acting. Shruti spent time in London performing gigs, even as
recently as last month. She also has a debut EP (extended play) lined up for
release later this year. But now she’s set to be back in front of the camera,
and she’s gone global.
Talking of the Bourne film
franchise, the action choreography is “different and path-breaking” than what
people are used to in spy thriller films. It is really riveting, especially the
close combat scenes. Filming for Treadstone is underway in Budapest, but Shruti
will have her scenes filmed in India. Actors in this project are set to undergo
a physical training workshop for the stunts. She has always performed her own
stunts. [Treadstone] will be on another level obviously.
While the show primarily airs for
the US market, Shruti is excited for her Indian followers because of the
availability of digital streaming options.
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