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        Hype is a concomitant of any Rajnikanth or Kamal Haasan movie in Tamil. After the breathless prose and limitless adjectives expended on Rajni's Sivaji, hypemeisters are back to working overtime on Dasavatharam, which has the peerless Kamal playing 10 diverse roles.

        Even a small morsel of info on the closely-guarded film is deemed 'breaking news' material. Already, the new media is full of photos and juicy bits on the film, whose USP at the moment would seem to be 'spot the Kamal' in the crowd.

        Anyway, adding to the growing Dasavatharam hoopla, a formal and official press release - a rare one, it must be said - has been issued by the film's team. The press release, accompanied by some photos of Kamal, Asin and Mallika Sherawat, is expected to keep the expectation on the boil.

        But the photos may come as a disappointment for those wanting to have a preview of Kamal's much talked of make-up in the movie. For, the photos feature the star in a plain-Jane kind of look.

        Directed by K S Ravikumar, the movie is produced on a whopping budget by Oscar Ravichandran. Kamal Haasan has penned the story, screenplay and dialogues himself.

        Kamal Haasan, in the release, said, 'Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had a look at the photographs of the ten different characters that I am playing in the movie.

        He appreciated my efforts and enjoyed the pictures with youthful enthusiasm'.

        Appreciating the producer, Kamal said, 'Oscar Films is the only production house after Rajkamal to facilitate everything needed to make the film the way it is meant to be.'

        Throwing in an interesting trivia, the release said Kamal Haasan has dubbed in different voices for the 10 characters that he is playing. Audiographer Sridhar has used different mikes for each of the character.

        According to Sridhar, 'it was a intricate job to record and reproduce the subtleties Kamal has brought into these characters without any digital add-ons'.

        It is planned to record the crowd voices of the opening sequence using 5000 people to match 10000 on screen.

        Said K S Ravikumar, 'if the dubbing work is of this magnitude, imagine how the shoot would have been'.

        The visual effects are handled by three different software companies and they are in the process of delivering their best output, said Ravikumar.

        Interestingly Dasavatharam features a host of directors in the cast: Bharathi, Vasu, R Sundararajan, Erode Sounder, Ramesh Kanna and K S Ravikumar play roles that are intrinsic to the script.

        Hollywood action director Joop has choreographed a stunt sequence in the movie. 'It took 20 days for us to shoot the stunt sequence since it has Kamal fighting with himself', added Ravikumar.

        Kamal Haasan has performed the action scenes without the help of dupes or computer graphics. 'The small tricks employed by the American stunt directors helped me and Asin perform the stunt scenes without taking risks. If our stunt masters follow them, then they would not risk their limbs and lives, said Kamal Haasan. The shooting for the movie commenced in Chennai and was shot extensively in Malaysia, USA and in Pichavaram near Chidambaram. All talkie portions are completed and two songs are to be shot in Chennai, informs Ravikumar.

        A proud Oscar Ravichandran, said, 'Kamal's action can match up to any international actor's. It will make the international community to turn their focus on Tamil cinema'. The cast includes Nepolean, Nagesh, M S Baskar, Asin, Mallika Sherawat, K R Vijaya, Jayapradha and Rekha.

        Ravi Varman handles cinematography, while music is scored by Himesh Reshmaiyya. Dasavatharam is to be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.