As is well-known Lakshmi Manchu has signed on the dotted line to do Mani Ratnam's next film, Pookadai, when she was to Chennai to launch a Tamil film which is to star her brother, Manoj, in the lead. The actress-producer will start shooting for the film from January, 2012.

Interestingly, Lakshmi has been begun to be taken seriously only after Anaganaga O Dheerudu, where she played a devilish character. The talented actress is lucky in that she has impressed Mani Ratnam very early in her acting career. She says that she will have to work towards perfecting Tamil to get her lines right. When it is a Mani Ratnam film, the actors cannot anything but be deft in speaking the lines.

The actress has been quoted as saying that she had heard the script even two months ago. The film's lead is Gautham, son of yesteryear hero Karthik. Sonam Kapoor is also part of the film.

This is no small achievement for Lakshmi for the simple fact that even superstars have not had the opportunity to act in a Mani Ratnam film in the past. Mahesh Babu, for one, did not get lucky when an opportunity slipped out of his hands due to dates problems.