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Monday, September 27, 2010
Director Vijay, who is getting ready to start his next after delivering the critically acclaimed ‘Madrasapattinam’, is bit tensed. And the reason is none other than Vikram, the protagonist of his forthcoming film.
“It is a performance-based subject and Vikram sir, who is known for his power-packed performance is preparing hard. In fact, his dedication and hard work are the two things that make me nervous”, he says.
“I feel a huge responsibility on me to come out with a convincing product”, the director says and adds: “I am hopeful that I could achieve it with the support from my producer Mohan Natarajan of Rajakaliamman Films”.
On ‘Madrasapattinam’ not making it to the Oscars, he says, “it’s just the beginning. I have a long way to go. The selection of ‘Peepli Live’ is a good choice as it is a short and crisp film, made authentically
Karthi Sivakumar has confirmed that he is doing a dual role for the first time in his career in ‘Siruthai’, his forthcoming film. “It is an emotional movie which will be packed commercially”, he says.
On his double role, he says, “Both characters are strikingly different from each other and give me ample scope for performance. As an actor, I am really happy to take up the challenge in Siruthai.”
Cinematographer-turned-director Shiva will wield the megaphone for ‘Siruthai’, which will be produced by K E Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green. Tamannah, Karthi’s lady love in ‘Paiyaa’, will romance him once again in this movie.
On his roping in by a top telecom company as its brand ambassador, the actor says, “This shows the faith they have in me. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for a four-film old actor”.
After carving a place for himself in Bollywood with the mega success of Ghajini, AR Murugadoss is ready to direct his second Hindi film. This 'untitled' movie will have Akshay Kumar in the lead. Vipul Shah, who is currently producing the Hindi remake of Kaakha Kaakha, will be the producer of the movie. Details about the heroine or the technical crew is unknown yet. The movie will hit the floors as soon as Murugadoss completes his work for Suriya and Shruthi Hassan starrer 7aam Arivu.
Akshay, known as Khiladi in Bollywood, is famous for his daredevil stunts in his movies. Murugadoss is also known for his passion for action sequences as there was lot of action in Ghajini even though it was a love story. So this lethal combination is sure to make and take action to the next level.
The Mankatha crew will be flying to Hyderabad as a schedule has been planned there from October 20. Ajith, who was reportedly very happy with the final script, will not be seen anywhere for a few days now. Industry sources report that Ajith is working on a style and get-up which is a secret to everyone in the crew. Even though Venkat Prabhu explained him the style for the movie, Ajith preferred his own version and told Venkat that he will meet him only on the first day of shoot in Hyderabad.
Everybody, including Venkat Prabhu, is eagerly waiting to see 'Thala' Mankatha get-up. Venkat also added that Mankatha will have different twists and turns in the movie and will be a high -voltage action thriller sans violence
STR is back in action after a bout of fever. The actor had to call off the shooting of Vaanam after he caught a viral infection. However, STR recovered fast and was seen on the sets of Vaanam. The team initially planned to begin the second schedule during mid-September but called off owing to STR’s illness.
Meanwhile, Vaanam’s leading lady Anushka completed her other acting commitments to allocate time for this film. It is now reported that scenes involving STR and Anushka are being shot in and around Chennai.
The filming for K.S. Ravikumar's Manmadhan Ambu is finally over and the post-production work for the movie is due to begin soon. The stars of the film Kamal Hassan, Madhavan and Trisha, along with the director and crew members, have been frantically shooting for the movie across the globe including Kodaikanal and Chennai. The final clap for the movie was heard yesterday (September 26, 2010) in Chennai.
The actors were treated by K.S. Ravikumar, after the shoot was complete, in his residence. The party was attended by the stars of the film and the crew. Madhavan seemed to be particularly happy with the end of the shoot as he is reportedly going on a sabbatical.
Appreciated for his professionalism, style and editing techniques, Srinath's I Love you 2 also stars Dishan and Jarvice B. The music video has been shot with absolutely no budget at all with the help of a three man team. Srinath is the producer, director, composer, singer and editor for the album.
Director Venkat Prabhu's upcoming movie with Ajith, Mankatha, has been in the news consistently even as the unit is quietly shooting for the movie. Rumors about who is Ajith's eye-candy in the movie seem to be flowing every day. While it was first speculated that Trisha has been roped in for the role, marking her third movie with Ajith, it just turned out that talks are still on to convince her to take the role. Now, the grapevine from the industry indicates that Genelia D Souza has also been approached for the role.
Looks like Ajith's lucky card, in this case Queen, will be a tough find. And true to the movie's name, it is an agonizing wait till the jackpot strikes.
The shoot of Nadunisi Naigal, starring Gautham's assistant Veera and Sameera Reddy, is complete and Gautham confirms that the film is in the post-production stages. The movie is expected to hit the screens soon. Gautham's production ventures Veppam and Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai are also in various stages of filming. Gautham is now concentrating on his next film, the remake of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, in Hindi. This movie is a joint production between Photon Kathaas and 20th Century Fox.
It is also reported that, Oscar winner A.R Rahman is much excited about the Hindi remake. While Gautham retains his technical team of Anthony, Rajeevan, Nalini sriram and Manoj Paramahamsa, the project is expected to start rolling soon.
The Rajini Film Festival was inaugurated on Friday, September 25th at AGS Cinemas which was opened in Anna Nagar, Chennai. As a prelude to the release of Endhiran on October 1, AGS cinemas has planned to screen seven movies of the Superstar starting from yesterday (24th September), as part of the film festival. The festival was inaugurated by Hansraj Saxena of Sun Pictures by screening the trailer of Endhiran.
The festival was inaugurated by Hansraj Saxena, COO Sun Pictures and was attended by Mr. Joyson, Manager, Operation AGS Cinemas, Ms. Archana CEO, AGS, Kalpathi S.Aghoram, and Sri Rangaraj CFO AGS Cinemas. Rajinikanth, who was supposed to attend the function, was not present. Speaking at the occasion, Saxena informed that Rajini is currently in Bangalore with personal commitments and will surely
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Karthi's next movie after Naan Mahaan Alla is Siruthai. Siruthai, a remake of Telugu hit Vikramarkudu, is directed by Siva. Karthi, after giving four blockbusters in a row, plays a dual role in Siruthai for the first time in his short career, Latest news about Siruthai is that almost 80% of the movie's shooting is complete and the remaining schedules will be complete in a very quick time as well.
Santhanam also has a part in Siruthai after his much-appreciated performance in Boss Engira Baskaran. Karthi will be romancing Tamannah in the movie after their successful combination in Paiyaa. Siruthai is produced by Studio Green and has Vidyasagar scoring the music.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Lingusamy and Arya, who are fresh from the success of ‘Paiyaa’ and ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ respectively, have come together to start a new venture, titled ‘Vettai’. Joining hands with them is Dhayanidhi Alagiri of Cloud Nine Movies.
The trio announced their new project in Chennai on Saturday evening, saying, “Vettai will be an action packed entertainer for the whole family. There will be something different in the story presentation and packaging”.
Lingusamy will have his regular team working with him on this film. He and Yuvan Shankar Raja, along with lyricist Na Muthukumar, will soon leave for foreign locations to compose five songs in the film.
“Vettai will be made on a big budget by producers Dhayanidhi Alagiri and Vivek Rathnavel. The shoot will start in the first week of December and will be completed by mid March. We are planning to release the film as the big summer release in May 2011”, the director said.
Tamannah, the heroine of Lingusamy’s earlier venture ‘Paiyaa’, will play the love interest of Arya in ‘Vettai’, while attempts are on to rope in Madhavan to do an important role, that of a police officer.
The ‘Enthiran’ storm has started blowing USA. The Rajinikanth-Aishwarya starer has set new North American record in the advance booking arena.
'Enthiran' is opening on October 1 all over the world including USA. But the tickets for the first week were a sell out within ten minutes of the advance booking counter opening.
The record breaking event happened at the Jackson Heights in New York. Usually the advance booking starts for a Hollywood film only a week before the release of the film. But the advance booking for ‘Enthiran’ started two weeks before and even then it was a record sell out.
‘Enthiran’ is the Indian film of the year which generated unprecedented pre-release expectations. The magnum opus of Sun Pictures is releasing on October 1 in over 3000 screens around the world. ‘Enthiran- The Robot’ is releasing in India, USA, UK, Europe, Malaysia, Singapore& Australia in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages.
Lakshmi Rai, who is of late busy with films in other south Indian languages, was in Chennai recently for a promotional event. “Chennai is where my heart is”, the actress said, expressing happiness about being back in the city.
“Chennai is very special to me. Some of my best works are in Tamil and I have many friends here. I would visit the city whenever I get time to meet them all. It’s like coming back home”, she said.
The actress, who is doing some much expected Malayalam movies at the moment, has been signed by Venkat Prabhu for Ajith starrer ‘Mankatha’. A couple of Tamil films are also in the pipeline for Lakshmi Rai, it is said.
“My passion is acting. So hardly does it matter whether it is Tamil or Telugu or Malayalam or Kannada. I am open to act in all languages as long as I get challenging roles”, she added.
Neetu Chandra, who did a special song with Ameer in Mysskin’s ‘Yutham Sei’, has impressed the ‘Paruthi Veeran’ filmmaker a lot. As a result, he has signed her for his directorial venture ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’.
If sources are to be believed, Ameer finalised Neetu for the role opposite ‘Jayam’ Ravi after contemplating the names of handful of actresses. Following this, Neetu left for Bangkok on Saturday to shoot for the film.
“Ameer and Neetu bonded well on the sets of ‘Yutham Sei’, which resulted in her bagging the ‘Aadhi Bhagavan’ offer. She is happy and hopeful that the film would be a benchmark in her career”, sources say.
They add: “She loved Ameer’s script and plays a modern girl in the film”. Neetu, who has acted in Tamil films ‘Yaavarum Nalam’ and ‘Theeradha Vilaiyattu Pillai’ before, is the leading lady of Ajith’s 50th movie ‘Mankatha’, directed by Venkat Prabhu.
Ajith and Shalini met the AIADMK supreme J Jayalalithaa at the wedding reception of the son of Saidai Duraisamy, Secretary of the South Chennai District of AIADMK. The function was held on Saturday at the YMCA grounds in Chennai.
Ajith and Shalini were at the wedding reception when Jayalalithaa walked in. The star couple received her blessings touching the feet of the leader. Later the star couple spent some time talking to the AIADMK chief.
Vijay, who had also attended the function also spoke to her for a few moments, she blessed him before leaving the venue.
Jai is on a signing spree. The actor, who is eagerly waiting the release of ‘Kanimozhi’, has signed two interesting projects, besides working on a script along with STR aka Silambarasan.
One of the films in which he would play the protagonist is ‘Vaalu, directed by newcomer Chandru. “Jai will play a brat in this movie which would have Santhanam to give him enough company”, sources say.
The other project of Jai is, as many of us know, the maiden Indian production venture of Hollywood giant 20th Century Fox. Produced in association with A R Murugadoss, the film which will also have Vimal of ‘Pasanga’ fame, will be directed by Saravanan, a former associate of the ‘Ghajini’ director.
In the meantime, his other venture ‘Arjunan Kadhali’ is getting ready to hit the screens. Also, buzz is that the actor will be part of ‘Mankatha’, the Ajith starrer, which is directed by his mentor and good friend Venkat Prabhu.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Early this month we had said that two films with fancy small titles, Pushkar-Gayatri directed ‘Va- Quarter Cutting’ and the other is Prabhu Deva directed ‘Ich’, may go in for title changes.
Cloud Nine Movies Dhayanidhi Alagiri had said his ‘Va- Quarter Cutting’ will stay. He explained the title saying ‘Va’ means the fractional number one fourth written in Tamil and ‘Quarter Cutting’ is just a tag and not the title.
But Prabhu Deva hasn’t got an acceptable explanation for the title and so has changed ‘Ich’ to ‘Engeyum Kadhal’. Music Director of the film Harris Jayaraj has confirmed the title change and he also has said from where the title has been grabbed.
The title has been taken from the lead song of the film. Of course the new title is far better than the previous one. Interestingly only a couple of days ago Prabhu Deva had gone public saying he loves Nayantara and they soon will marry. Engeyum Kadhal, Eppodhum Kadhal.
Dhanush is out of hospital bed. He recovered sooner than expected by the aces and back hands of Rafael Nadal. Wonder? Read on.Recently Dhanush was down with fever and was hospitalized. The illness was so severe that he could not even participate fully at the wedding events of his sister-in-law Soundarya Rajinikanth. He was present for the wedding for some time but had to retire soon to the hospital. He could not even attend the reception ceremony.
But he has recovered faster than expected. One reason may be getting a lovely co-brother for company. Another is Rafael Nadal winning the US Open. While in hospital Dhanush had tweeted "Nadal's victory is my only medicine!!"
Now that Nadal has won his first US Open title on Monday to complete his collection of Grand Slam titles, Dhanush is back to good health and will resume work fully in a matter of four weeks. Hail Rafael!
‘Manmathan Ambu’ shooting is in its fourth schedule. The director KS Ravikumar who looks soft out side is a task master. After completing days of hectic work KS Ravikumar has let his team members have some fun in France.
Trisha wanted to see a 16th century church and the director gave them two days holidays and the entire team including Kamal and Trisha went on a Tour de France. They travelled in an exclusive luxury bus arranged by KS Ravikumar on his personal account.
The task master is really good at heart. But can we get to see ‘Manmadhan Ambu’ on Diwali day?
Deputy Chief Minister MK Stalin yesterday watched a special show of ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ at a city preview theatre in Chennai.
The deputy CM was welcomed by the hero Arya and the director of ‘BEB’ Rajesh M. Udhayanidhi Stalin who is also a producer of the film accompanied the deputy CM.
The deputy CM liked the movie and laughed heartily at the comedy scenes. ‘BEB’ released last Friday and got a grand opening that suggests the film is going to be a mega hit. The film stars Arya, Nayantara and Santhanam in main roles.
Divorce has not put Sonia Agarwal down. After separating from Selvaraghavan, Sonia was seen at all the major filmy events in good spirits. She also showed her interest to return to films during those times.
First there was news from Kasthoori Raja that Sonia will be making her re-entry through one of his films.
But now we have confirmed news saying Sonia Agarwal is homecoming with the upcoming film ‘Vaanam’ starring Silambarasan, Prakash Raj, Bharath, Anushka and Sneha Ullal.
In ‘Vaanam’, Sonia plays the wife of Prakash Raj. ‘Vaanam’ is the Tamil remake of the super hot Telugu film ‘Vedam’ directed by Krish. The Tamil version is also directed by Krish himself.
‘Vaanam’ is many stories spun together beautifully. All the stars have equal screen space so Sonia is there to make an impact again. More over Sonia will have a song and more scenes than what was there for her role in the Telugu original.
Interestingly Sonia was approached for the same role when the original ‘Vedam’ was conceived. But she could not take it for private reasons. Sonia‘s last film in Tamil ‘Thiruttu Payale’ was three years ago and it was the biggest hit if that year.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Popular actor Murali passed away in Chennai late last midnight.
According to sources, he was admitted to a hospital on the outskirts of Chennai after he developed sudden illness. He however breathed his last late night not responding to the treatment.
Murali, aged 46, complained of chest pain and was taken to the hospital immediately but he didn’t respond well to the treatment. His body was taken back to his Valsaravakkam residence and was kept there for public homage.
Murali started his acting career in 1984 with the film 'Poovilangu' though he made his debut in Kannada. He acted along side actors like Thespian Sivaji Ganesan, Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Sarath Kumar, Mammootty, Prabhu Deva, and Parthiban.
Murali was noticed in the super hit movie ’Puthu Vasantham’ and earned laurels for his performance in ‘Idhayam’ with which he got immense popularity. Other movies that got him appreciation were ‘Thanga Manusukkaran’, ‘Alli Thanda Vanam’, ‘En Asai Machan’, ‘Poomani’, ‘Porkaalam’, ‘Sundara Travels’, etc.
Murali won the Tamil Nadu best actor award in 2001 for his performance in ‘Kadal Pookal’.
His last film was 'Baana Kaathadi', which is the maiden venture of his son Atharva. Murali is survived by his wife Shoba, sons Atharva and Vijay, and daughter Kavya.
IndiaGlitz conveys its sincere condolences to the bereaved.
Murali complained of chest pain this morning and was rushed to a private hospital and the doctors there declared him brought dead.
Murali's body was brought to his residence and is being kept for people to show their last respects for the actor. Stars and friend started coming to the house as soon as they heard the demise of Murali.
Since morning Rajinikanth, Sarath Kumar-Radhika, Sivakumar, Suriya, Revathi, Karthik, Sneha, Vivek, Arjun, Chandrasekar, Parthiban, Senthil, Chinni Jayanth, Suresh, Prasanna, Sathyajothi Thiyagarajan, Ponvannan-Saranya, Mohan, Saravanan, Thiyagu, Ganesh-Arthi and many others have paid their respects to the mortal remains of Murali.
Murali is survived by his wife and two sons, including Atharva, who made his film debut recently in the film ‘Baana Kaathadi’.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
With less than 72 hours left for the release of ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’, director of the film Rajesh is brimming with hope that this second venture of him too would strike a right chord among the film buffs.
“A decent script, when presented with right ingredients, would always receive a warm reception from the audience. I believe ‘Boss Engira Baskaran’ has all these things in a right combination,” he says.
“Coupled with these things are the beautiful performances by the lead actors Arya, Nayantara and Santhanam,” he says and adds: “The three have delivered their best. You can expect a laughathon in theatres.”
Thanking all the three producers (Udhayanidhi Stalin, Arya and K S Srinivasan) who are involved in the project, Rajesh adds: “Fault will be mine if I fail to appreciate the music by Yuvan Shankar Raja. He has given beautiful songs and wonderful background score.”
Cheeyan Vikram is sill basking in the glory of ‘Raavanan’. The Mani Ratnam directed film has taken Vikram to frontiers beyond Bollywood, Kollywood and all other Indian woods.
Presently Vikram is in Venice with Mani Ratnam and Suhasini for the screening of ‘Raavan’ in the out-of-competition category at the 67th Venice Film Festival happening from September 1-11. At the festival Mani Ratnam was honoured with ‘Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award’.
After the award ceremony, the festival premiere of ‘Raavanan’ was screened the Sala Grande Palazzo Del Cinema on Monday. Vikram, Mani Ratnam and Suhasini Mani Ratnam walked the red carpet to attend the premiere.
The premiere was to be attended by all the main cast of ‘Raavanan’. But Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan could not attend for personal reasons. The reason said is that the film festival is sponsored by an international watch brand that is a competitor to another watch brand Abi and Ash jointly promotes. So they heeded a request by their brand bosses and stayed back. Valid.
Consumer brand endorsements have always been a lucrative option for many film stars. A few days work and a remuneration of a film. No wonder most of the stars are bitten by the advertisement bug.
Actresses were the usual choice for advertisements until a few years ago. Of late even the top male stars are showing great interest in doing commercials. Suriya and Madhavan are the kings of endorsements already. Vijay is selective but gets reputed brands. Even Vikram has finally fallen for advertisements.
If the young stars are opted for particular kind of products, senior actors like Sarath Kumar, Jayaram. Vijayakumar are chosen for value products. Now the latest to join the advertisement wagon is veteran Karthik.
Heartthrob of the eighties Karthik will soon be seen in commercial advertisements promoting a dhoti brand. Karthik plays a respectable man and ‘Naadodigal’ Shanthini Theva plays his wife in the commercial. The campaign will break next week and IndiaGlitz is breaking the news first.
‘Chennai 600028’ was about sports. ‘Saroja’ was a thriller. And his last venture ‘Goa’ was a romantic entertainer. But a common thread in all these three films of Venkat Prabhu is comedy.
However, this important factor of Venkat Prabhu movies will get only less importance in his next venture ‘Mankatha’. “The 50th film of Ajith will be an ultimate action entertainer,” say sources in the know.
“Since Ajith is an A-list actor with a huge fan following and this being his 50th film, Venkat has decided to make it as an action movie with a mass appeal,” sources say. Confirming this, the director too says, “Mankatha will be a serious action film with very little comedy.”
Meanwhile, buzz is that Ajith and Tollywood top hero Nagarjuna, who play the lead roles in ‘Mankatha’, will swap their characters in the Telugu version of the movie. Produced by Dhayanidhi Alagiri, ‘Mankatha’ went to floors recently.
Aishwarya Rai has reportedly rejected a $1 Million (Rs. 5 crores) offer by a Hollywood studio to shoot a documentary filmed on her. According to the deal, a foreign crew would follow her for a week and document her personal and professional life.
The offer did not interest the beauty even to the slightest because she believes her privacy is priceless. Despite the team tried to influence the actress for a month Aishwarya was firm and politely rejected the request.
She said she would never let anyone shoot her at home and that what happens within her home are nobody’s business but her own.
In 2004 a British-based author and director Nasreen Munni Kabir filmed a documentary ‘The Inner World and the Outer World of Shahrukh Khan’ based on the actor and probably that might have prompted the Hollywood studio to try for one with Aishwarya Rai.
SRK’s documentary featured his 2004 Temptations concert tour, also his ‘inner world’ of family and daily life and his ‘outer world’ of his work.
