Hyderabad: Following Yuva, the story of Indian youth in 2004, filmmaker Mani Ratnam now returns with the Abhishek Bachchan-Aishwarya Rai starrer, Guru to be released soon.

A film being touted as the 'Life of the most controversial man of the year'.

The film set in Gujarat has been made in Hindi as usual. However, there is good news for fans in the south, the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions will also be released simultaneously.

Ratnam insists that the story of Guru cuts across languages, dismissing it as a conscious move to the Tamil industry.

"The basic identification with the character was the same all over the country I guess. It is rooted, it’s real, it's middle-class. It has everything that a human drama sees, so it should be the same everywhere," Ratnam says.

The Tamil version is also called Guru, however, the Telugu version is titled Gurukanth.

All versions are slated to release on January 12.