Vijayalakshmi Singh is the director of 'Ee Bhandana'

Actress and Film producer Vijayalakshmi Singh will direct Dr. Vishnuvardhan and Jayaprada starrer 'Ee Bhandana' which has actor Darshan in another important role. The film was launched on April 6, Friday with much fan fare in Bangalore's Saamis Dream Land.

Ms. Singh who is better known in the Kannada film industry circles as Munni was to be the film's designer and co-producer, but now the responsibility of wielding the megaphone of this film almost came to her on a platter. With this opportunity, Munni joins the select band of artists cum directors in the film industry and the list includes such distinguished names as Ms. Jayanthi and Ms. Arathi.

Marathi film director Sachin should have directed this film as earlier plans, but he was not able to allot free dates for the film due to his busy schedule of directing many films and tele-serials in Marathi. Then the mantle of directing the film fell on Munni who had taken interest in the project from the day it was conceived. Finally, Ms. Singh who had acted as a heroine to Vishnu in 'Huli Hejje' directed by veteran director Ravi is all set to direct the actor in a film that has a strong element of sentiments in the film.

'Looking at the way I got involved in the project, Vishnu himself suggested me to take up direction because Sachin was not able to fully concentrate on the project. I took two days time, but then decided to take this challenge. This was a god sent opportunity to me to direct a big actor who has already proved his mettle as a fantastic performer' said Ms. Singh.

Mano Murthy who is enjoying a big time with the huge success of 'Mungaru Male' is the music director of this film. Vishnuvardhan and Ms. Jayaprada, his heroine in the film, attended the Muhurath of the film. However, Darshan could not make his presence during the shooting of the film as the actor was busy shooting for his film 'Gaja' in Mysore. Jayaprada attended the muhurath of the film and also participated in a day's song shoot on the Pooja day. She has given continuous call sheet in the second week of May by which time the elections to Uttar Pradesh elections would be over.