The hot chick of Kollywood and Tollywood has decided to go plain, sans any glamour, for her upcoming Malayalam flick, Bodyguard.
The glam girl has opted for a traditional Mallu look for the movie. She plays the role of Ammu, a college-going girl. Dileep dons the hero role for the movie directed by Siddique.
The film is being shot in Palakkad, Kottayam and a few other places. This is Nayan's comeback Malayalam movie after a break of four years.
The Chennai International Screenwriting Workshop, the first of its kind in South India, hosted by Raajkamal Films International in association with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, will kick off with a brief inaugural session on May 28.
The workshop will culminate with a two-day seminar with some of the best screenwriters and filmmakers from around the world.
French writer Jean Claude Carriere, Olivier Lorelle (whose film Indigenes was nominated to the Oscars 2006) and Shekhar Kapur, will share their thoughts with the likes of K. Balachander, Balu Mahendra, Gulzar, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Rituparno Ghosh, Shyamaprasad and Sriram Raghavan at the seminar between June 2 and June 3, 2009.
"I envy the 250 delegates who will get to be there at the ICSR auditorium at IIT to listen to the masters and attend the screenwriting workshop to be conducted by Anjum Rajabali, Atul Tiwari and K.Hariharan," says Kamal Haasan.
Kamal Haasan is dedicating the seminar to his dear old friend Ananthu, who first introduced him to world cinema.
"Ananthu was the one who got me into writing. Suchitra Film Society would screen films from around the world. Every time films came for festivals, we would hijack the films and watch them," he recalls. "Once I could afford it, I went to the US and spent some time with (John) Truby. He was like my coach. He introduced me to all the tools I needed. Thevar Magan was the first film here to be written with Movie Magic, a screenwriting software."
Later in the nineties, he met Luis Bunuel's regular hand Jean Claude Carriere, who went on to become the co-writer for Maruthanayagam. "He then introduced me to Abbas Kiarostami and that was the first time we spoke of mentoring writers and filmmakers. Because not all storytellers make for good screenwriters. Even if Shakespeare was around today, he would have to learn screenwriting. Not to say screenwriting is greater than Shakespeare. It's just that the rules of the game have changed. It took me nearly twenty years to learn what is today taught in film schools. These 250 students we have selected will need just a week to take their first baby step towards writing."
The speakers all belong to different schools of cinema. "All the people I have called are people I have learned from even if they are younger than me. Some of them are people I consider mentors. Mr. Balachander has written and produced 100 different films, Mr. Balu Mahendra and I wish Mani Ratnam could've come too but he has a film to complete."
The workshop is only for selected delegates and the seminar is only by invitation.
The "crazy" brand of humour is all set to hit Tamil screens again. This time, with Karthik Kumar in the lead though! (You last saw him in Dhanush's flick,
Yaaradi nee mohini).
Crazy Mohan has penned the script and screenplay of the film
Kola Kolaya Mundirikka which is being directed by Madhumita. She made her directorial debut in
Vallamai Tharayo.
Kola Kola... cast Karthik and Shika in the lead, with Jayaram, Anandaraj, Vasu, Vikram,M S Bhaskar, Delhi Ganesh and others.
The film was launched recently by Ace director of yesteryears, K. Balachander. Crazy Mohan is confident that he would make people laugh 500 times in two hours through the film.
No more pirated CDs of even the latest flicks. Thanks to Moserbaer. The company has managed to get the DVD publishing rights of even all latest flicks including Subramaniapuram, Anjathey, Sachin, Mayavi and Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Delhi 6.
The company is reportedly wooing all film producers saying that if they could bring out the original DVDs well in advance, it can be beneficial both to the producers and consumers alike. Also, it hopes that this effort can put a tab on the thriving pirated CD market.
In the recent times, the Moserbaer has also managed to release a few popular language films with English sub-titles so that they could reach a global audience.
Oscar winning music composer A.R. Rahman will soon have a doctorate degree added to his title. Courtesy: Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).
The doctorate will be conferred on him at the ensuing 59th annual convocation function of the varsity to be held on June 7.
This honarary degree is being given to Rahman appreciating the double Oscars that he won for Danny Boyle's film,
Slumdog MillionaireApart from Rahman, Gopichand Narang, former president of Sahitya Academy, would also be conferred an honorary doctorate.
Thambi Vettothi Sundaram, story is based on the real life incidents that took place in Kanyakumari, ten years ago, is the latest film to be produced by J. Sentilkumar on behalf of TJS 24 Frames.
"There are two heroes in this film. Karan and Story! We have presented the storyline without distorting the authenticity. Each and every frame will demonstrate reality," says Director V.C. Vadivudayan, a student of Veteran Malayalam director Shaaji Kailash.
The story is about a young man who is possessed by an evil spirit. But what drives him to break the spell of curse forms the crux of the film.
The cast includes Karan, Anjali, Saravanan, Kanja Karuppu, Vennira Aadai Moorthy and others. Cameraman Anjaneyalu, Editor Suresh Ars, Stunt Master Kanal Kannal have also teamed up together.First shooting session took place at Kanyakumari - Kerala border for 35 days.
Vairamuthu and Vidhyasagar have joined hands to create a celebratory and soothing musical treat.
Adman Prakash Verma is the cyonsure of all eyes in the advertising world. For his recent creation, the Vodafone Zoozoos, have caught the fancy of one and all. The alien-like characters with bulbous heads and stick-like hands and legs were the original idea of creative director Rajiv Rao of Nirvana Films.
While Prakash sketched the chracters, Rajiv got the scrips ready for about 30 films based on Vodafone's various value-added services.
The film shot with real people, made to look like animated characters, was a challenge in itself. The team opted for a special material for body suit to show no creases and the entire project was shot in Cape Town, South Africa.
The interesting tidbit about the ad film maker is that he had already made his mark in the tinsel town already as a director with his films Moonamthoral and Freaky Chakra.
The ad maker is reportedly toying the idea of getting into feature films again. Will Zoozoos enter Kollywood soon?
Michael Jackson of India Prabhu Deva is now donning a different role among the Hindi audience. That of a judge in the hottest television dance reality show, Jhalak Dikhala Ja.
The show being aired on Sony TV features celebrity dancers and celebrity judges. Currently 'disco dancer' Mithun Chakraborty, fondly called Mithun da, is the main judge. Prabhu Deva has been called in as the celebrity fourth judge to sort out the dispute between the audience voting and judges favourite.
Though as per audience voting, contestant Hard Kaur was voted out, the judges stumped by her mind-blowing performance, wanted her in.
To resolve this dispute, Prabhu Deva has been called in as a fourth and celebrity judge.
Prabhu Deva is all set to make his Bollywood debut as a director with the Salman Khan starrer,
Wanted.
The audio launch of the film Valmiki' produced by media company Vikatan Talkies is scheduled to be held in Chennai on May 22. Maestro Ilayaraja has scored the music for the film.
Malayalam Television anchor turned actress Meera Nandan will make her debut in Tamil with this movie.
Kallori fame Akhil is the hero of the movie
The movie is being directed by Anantha Narayanan, former assistant of Director Shanker.
The audio will be released by Director Shanker and will be received by Director N.Linguswamy.
Eminent personalities including Ramanarayanan, Kalaipuli G.Sekar, Abirami Ramanathan etc are expected to participate in the function.
Malayalam superstar Mohanlal celebrated his 49th birthday today(May 21) quietly at a hotel in between the shoot of his latest film,
Alexander The Great.
The actor refused any celebrations as his father-in-law produced Balaji had passed away recently.
The only celebration was a cake cutting ceremony, participated by the entire unit. Mohanlal has more than about 300 films to his credit and had recently teamed up with Kamal Hassan for a Tamil movie,
Unnaipol oruvan.
This the first time that the two superstars of Tamil and Malayalam film industry had come together.
Director AMR Ramesh, who is directing a film on Rajiv Gandhi's assasination case, 21/5/1991 - The Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi killers, has zeroed in on Bollywood bombshell Divya Dutta to play the crucial role of LTTE militant, Nalini.
There are reports doing rounds that she may visit the original Nalini, one of the convicts in the assassination case, now in jail in Tamil Nadu. However, Divya has acknowledged that she has been watching videos of Priyanka Gandhi's recent interviews about her meeting with Nalini.
Even lookwise too, Divya who is a real bombshell, is reported to have started working hard. She soon hopes to have a leaner and meaner look to suit the profile of the character she is portraying.
Pasupathy's latest flick is ‘Vedigundu’ Murugesan which depicts the life of a petty thief with great adherence for Tamil Literature falling in love with a lady cop enacted by Jyothirmayee.
The cast also includes Vadivelu, Nirmala Periyasamy, debutants Deepa and Veera, George and many others.
Director C. Moorthy, who made his debut in
Karuppasamy Kuthagaitharar, has directed the film. Bala Bharathi has handled the camera while K.L. Praveen and N.B. Srikanth have edited the sequences.
Dheena has tuned mesmerizing tunes for the lyrical lines of Yughabharathi and Eknath.
The film is set for release on June…
Tamil star Madhavan is super thrilled about his latest flick "13B" gaining an entry into the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival, scheduled to be held from June 13-21.
He plans to go Shanghai along with the film's debutant director Vikram K.
Kumar for the screening of the film. The Tamil version of "13B", called "Yavarum Nalam", is also a hit.
Madhavan had just finished a long shooting schedule in London for the Hindi film "Teen Patti" in which he is cast along with superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood actor Ben Kingsley. He is currently taking a break with his family members in Bangkok.
The audio launch of the film Naadodigal directed by P. Samuthirakani will be held on Monday, May 18.
The film has stars including
Subramaniapuram fame Sasikumar, Ananya, vijay, Abinaya, Barani , Kanja Karuppu & others.
Veteran Tamil director K.Balachander will be the gues to of honour. Other invitees in the function include producer Ramanarayanan and directors Cheran, Bala and Ameer.
The audio release of Kanthaswamy, the much-awaited Vikram flick, is all set to happen on May 17.
The high budget Tamil film directed by Susi Ganesan has hot doll Shriya Saran in the lead.
Shriya is sporting a new look with short hair and has reportedly undergone martial arts training with the master Mukund. Along withe the twosome, Vivek, Santhanam and Raghuvaran have also been cast in the movie. play other roles. It was Raghuvaran's last movie before his death.
Soon after its release, the producers plan to dub the film in Telugu under the title, Mallana.
Even the movie's opening ceremony was the talk of Kollywood whose each invitation cost about Rs 15,000. The invite was an LCD screen which displayed an 8-minute trailer of the movie. On the novel invite, the producer Kalipuli S. Dhanu was heard proclaiming that "even Hollywood did not think of such a different idea."
Actor Vijay will team up with Perarasu for his golden jubilee film. Industry sources say that Vijay was keen to get Perarasu for his 50th film as the duo had earlier delivered hits. The duo had worked together in films such as Tiruppachi and Sivakasi.
It is also learnt that director S.P. Rajakumar is being asked to pen story, screenplay and dialogues for the film.
Sangili Murugan, who produced Vijay's superhit, Kadalakku mariyadai, may produce this 50th film of the Tamil star. The interesting tidbit is that Vijay has shunned all Bollywood actress for the movie and is exploring the option of approaching Tamannah to pair with him.
Shruti Haasan, daughter of Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan,is a busy girl even before her debut film hits the theatres. Her dad is among the one who has booked her dates in advance.
Shruti, 23, is composing the music for Kamal Haasan's upcoming Tamil film
Unnaipol Oruvan, a Tamil remake of Hindi film
A Wednesday. But she has also been booked as the heroine of Soham Shah's Hindi flick
Luck produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd. She has been paired with latest heart-throb Imran Khan.
Shruti is busy composing the music in Chennai and as soon as that's over, she'll be back in Mumbai to promote the film.
The audio and trailer launch of the film
Achchamundu Achchamundu Starring Prasanna & Sneha at Satyam Cinemas will be held on May 15.
Oscar winner for sound technology Rasool Poo Kutty will launch the audio of the film.
Many top celebrities of the film industry including Director K.Balachander, actors Nasser, Revathy, Nirav Shah, Venkat Prabhu are expected to take part in this function
Thankfully, Music director A.R, Rehman cast his vote today without facing any identity issues like Kamal Hassan and Director Ameer.
Rahman was one of those early birds who casted his vote at MGR school,kodambakkam near his house by 7.30am.
The final phase of polling for the 15th Lok sabha elections began at 7.00 am.
After Kamal Hassan, it was director Ameer's turn to find his name missing in voter's list.
The filmmaker had to cast his vote at the area of KK Nagar, Madurai. But he found that his name was missing from the list. But what was very queer was that his w
life's name was there in the list.
Post this incident, Director Ameer was heard saying, ‘Much scandalizing was to see just my name missing while my wife’s identity was included in the list. I really can’t understand what’s gonna happen with my single vote and at the same time; I don’t intend this to be intentional much before investigations. I have mailed my complaint to election commission and hoping for better results.’
Tiny Pixels is a digital art exhibition by S. Varuna and is dedicated to revere the role of Technology in ART. The show consists of paintings done in digital medium and printed using technology.
Ace Cinematographer & Director thiru. P.C. Sreeram inaugurated the show by lighting a digital lamp. This is the first time that technology is used to lighting a lamp, which was very innovative.
He released the CD and Catalogue of Varuna's works. Director Pandiraj, actors Kishore and Sriram, all from the unit of the film
Pasanga received the first copy of the CD.
There were 21 paintings on the show. This is Varuna's ninth show and Sreeram called her a "child prodigy". He said that she is very clear in her concepts and communication.
Varuna said,"Today is an unforgettable day in my life because P.C. Sreeram blessed me and appreciated me very much. He called me a child prodigy and said that next year during your 10th show I will come and take your autograph. I felt so proud to hear such words from a great technician like P.C I have watched many of his films, including the recent
13B Yaavarum Nalam and was so impressed with the cinematography, now when he is congratulating me, it is unbelievable., as I painted in my show. I am in the sky, flying high".
National Technology Day is a very special day for Indian science since 1999. It is so significant because India achieved a huge technological advancement on the day. The first, indigenous aircraft “Hansa-3” was test flown at Bangalore on this day. Not only this, India also performed successful test firing of the Trishul missile on the same day. India also executed three successful nuclear tests, carried out at Pokhran, in Rajasthan May 11.
In a bid to scotch rumours about discord between Warner Brothers and Ocher studios of Soundarya Rajinikanth, the Hollywood company released a press statement clarifying the same.
“Warner Bros. has been and will continue to work with Ocher Studios. Together, our companies have a number of southern Indian language projects in various stages, from early negotiations to active development. We will announce these projects at the appropriate time. But, any rumor that suggests otherwise is simply not true.” said Richard Fox Executive Vice – President International, Warner Bros.
“Ocher Studios Pvt. Ltd and Warner Bros have already established a very successful relationship and the team will very soon announce their forth coming projects. The rumors suggesting otherwise which are doing the rounds are part of someone’s fictitious imagination.” Says Soundarya Rajinikanth Managing Director, Ocher Studios Pvt Ltd
A book in Kannada capturing the struggling days and the "mysteries behind the persona" of Tamil superstar Rajnikant, will soon be released in audio cassette and CD format, officials of an audio company said.
The book, titled "Vikshiptha Vichithra", was brought out three years ago on the eve of the release of Rajnikant's blockbuster film "Sivaji" directed by Shankar.
The contents of the book were also serialised in Kannada's leading daily Vijaya Karnataka, in which the author, Mahesh Devashetty, works as a senior sub-editor.
Thulasi Ram Velu of Lahari Audios which is releasing the audio cassette and CD told IANS: "Taking out the book as an audio cassette and CD is one of the big projects that have been undertaken by the company."
Lahari Audio owns as many as 140,000 titles in the film and non- film categories. It has the rights of films such as "Bombay", "Roja", "Prema Loka" and "Gharana Mogudu".
"The company will release audio albums based on popular Kannada books under its Lahari Visions banner," Velu said.
"The first attempt is Rajnikant's book written by Mahesh Devashetty. Many people who were not able to read the book will now be able to know the contents of the book through this CD album," Velu said.
Devashetty said he had undertaken extensive research to write the book and had interviewed many people in Karnataka who had known Rajnikant in his struggling days.
"There were many people who helped Rajnikant to realise his ambition to become an actor. The book also brings out the mysteries behind Rajnikant's persona and his exciting journey in the film industry," Devashetty said.
(IANS)
Abitha of
Sethu fame is getting married on 25th May, 2009 at St.Marys catholic church,Pachira, Kottayam. The groom's name is T.George,who is employed as a Chief Accountant in a chemical company in Kottayam.
This is an arranged marriage.:)
Currently Abitha is acting in serials titled
Thirumathi Selvam and
Thangamana Purushan.
She has promised to conitnue acting in serials after the marriage.
