Vaaram Aayiram exceeds Budget

Producer Oscar Ravichandiran has complained against director Gautham Menon for exceeding the budget of their forthcomming movie Vaaranam Aayiram. Vaaranam Aayiram is the movie directed by Goutham Menon with Surya, Sameera Reddy and Divya in the lead roles and produced by Oscar Films, V.Ravichandran.

Initially the buget of the movie was fixed to 10.5 crores. But after the shooting proceeded director Gautham Vasudeva Menon refused to proceed further without an additional 3.5 crores and now the budget is at 14 crores.

Hence the producer has lodged a complaint in Producers’ Council against the director. He has said that he has difficulting getting the 3.5 crore extra demanded by the director. But sources in the movie crew are of the opinion that the movie should release without any problems. The issue with the extra money has been sorted out. They had problem obtaining shooting permission in various places which led to the extra cost. Now the movie is going to continue shooting in Delhi, Varanasi and Malaysia.

Vishal in love

The media is ablaze with speculation on who is the lady love of Vishal? Vishal in an interview to a leading Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan has said that he is in love with an actress and it is a going to be a special valentines day for him.

Now everyone is playing the guessing game of naming the lucky lady. Is it Priyamani with whom he acted in Malaikottai? Is it Nayantara with whom he is acting in the upcomming satyam? Both the actresses when contacted have categorically denied the rumors.

When contacted again, Vishal says that it is one sided love and he has not told the actress yet. They are friends and understand each other well. He is not sure if he will ever tell the actress. But if he decides to tell and the actress accepts then the whole of Tamil Nadu will know about it.

Looks like its a secret that only Vishal knows…or is it a publicity stunt?

Heath Ledger Found Dead

Heath Ledger the Australian born actor whose role as a cowboy in movie Brokeback Mountain earned him a nomination for an Academy Award, was found dead Tuesday in an apartment in Manhattan with sleeping pills near his naked body.(Heath Ledger's body being taken into ambulance from his apartment)

Heath was found dead around 2:30 by his house maid. She found his lying motionless in his bed and she tried to revive him but it was of no use. Immediately she called for help but it was too late. The cause of his death is not yet known and postmortem will be done on Wednesday.

Polladhavan - movie review

Despite the clichés, (songs, scrawny lead actor!) director Vetrimaaran succeeds with Pollaadhavan mainly through the masterful screenplay that spins an unusual tale with things progressively spinning out of control, much to our surprise! As for the scrawny lead, director Shankar, when he was re-launching Prabhudeva (post Indu!) in Kaadhalan, placed a minor Karate learning shot to convince us that a bag of bones could possibly deal with a hefty man. But, while Dhanush does look the part of a lower middle class boy yearning for a bike, the only other parts that equals Shankar’s Karate-shot are Dhanush’s mom asking him to get a bike of his size and Dhanush calling himself ‘chappai’. The chappai does go on to smash the shit out of the larger-sized villains, though, quite implausibly. Even the ravishing-heroine-falling-for-scrawny-hero part is sheer annoyance. Such quibbles aside, the film’s depiction of the urban underworld is superbly gritty. Most people live their parts amazingly well, specially Dhanush’s dad and Selvam, the lead villain. Pollaadhavan is enjoyably seeped in reality about ordinary people in extraordinary situations, except for one thing that continues to plague Tamil cinema - pandering to the hero, not for his emoting abilities, but for his connections.

Shankar's Future Plans

Shankar has been able to put into action his dream project Robot with none other than Superstar Rajini. But there is another dream project that Shankar has always wanted to carryout.

Shankar dream has been to make a movie on Rajinikanth starting from his life as a humble bus conductor to that of a superstar. Shankar is thinking of making that film in the future and it will be titled simply ‘Rajnikanth’. The film will be based on a book ‘The Name is Rajni’ written by Gayathri Srikanth, and talks are on with her to buy the rights of the book to make a film.

The movie is likely to be made only by 2012 after the completion and release of Robot.

Santosh Subramaniam - Bommarillu Remake ready for release

The movie Santosh Subramaniam starring Jeyam Ravi and Genelia is ready for a early release. The movie is directed by M Raja and produced by Kalpathi S Agoram. Jeyam Ravi teams up with his brother M. Raja for the film Santosh Subramanium. The film, produced by A.G.S. Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

A remake of Telugu hit Bommarillu, Santosh Subramaniam features Prakash Raj and Jayam Ravi as father-son. The film stars Prakash Raj as Ravi’s father and the flim’s focus is on father-son bonding. The movie also stars Sayaji Shinde. Music is by Devi Sri Prasad; lyrics are by Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay and Yugbharathi.

Former international cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh plays a prominent role. It is very rare to come across a love story laced with family sentiments. But Santosh Subramaniam will be one, says director Raja.

Maddy replaces SRK as Airtel Ambassador

Madhavan’s popularity is high in kollywood. Airtel who want to cash in on this has signed R Madhcavan on as the Brand Ambassador for Airtel - Southern Region. SRK will continue to be the brand ambassador for the North and West region.

Maddy was chosen for the south region since he is the youth icon of South and he appeals to the youth and family alike. When compared to SRK, the humble maddy says that he is not bigger than SRK and is happy to be working with Airtel. Maddy is signing up for the 2nd time with Airtel.

John Upset

John Abraham, the handsome hunk of bollywood, is very upset with director Sriram Raghavan for not starting the shooting of his romantic flick in which he has been paired opposite gorgeous Aishwarya Rai.

John wants this film to start as soon as possible as only this film can salvage his fast depleting market value at the box office, after he delivered a series of duds like ‘ Kabul Express’, ‘ Salaam-e- Ishq’, and ‘ No Smoking’.

In fact, John Abraham has kept his schedule free for this film from last December as the film was slated to go on the floors by that time, but due to some problem in finalization of the script on the part of director, it could not go on as planned. Sources say that John Abraham has been constantly reminding the director to start work but Sriram Raghavan is still not convinced about the second half of the film and wants to make some changes in the script before going on the floors.

On the one hand, John Abraham has been waiting for the film to start since last December and on the other hand, Aishwarya Rai, who is supposed to play the female lead, has yet not given any dates for the film. Though in principle the gorgeous beauty has given her consent to producer Rohan Sippy to work in the film, but before giving exact dates for the shooting, she wants to read the final bound script of the film. So till the time director gives final script to Ash and she is satisfied with that, shooting is unlikely to start.

This is not for the first time that a film starring John Abraham with Aishwarya Rai is in trouble. Earlier too they were supposed to work together in Gaurang Doshi’s big budget film ‘ Happy Birthday’, but somehow things did not work out and Aishwarya had refused to work with the director. The industry was abuzz with the talk of Ash opting out of the film due to Gaurang’s ill-treatment of his girlfriend and subsequent police case. At a later stage, even John Abraham had opted out of the film and it was shelved forever.

Now, it will be interesting to see if this film by Sriram Raghavan of ‘ Johnny Gaddar’ and ‘ Ek Haseena Thi’ fame salvages John Abraham’s reputation at the box office or gets itself shelved due to Aishwarya Rai or some script problem.

Saif with Bebo

Saif Ali Khan, the chote nawab of bollywood who is in deep love with the sizzling hot babe Kareena Kapoor, forced the coordinators of an event promoting a brand of tea to book a suite in a five star hotel so that he could spend some quality time with his beau.

Though Saif was only for a few hours at the hotel and left immediately after the event where he was chief guest, but even for that short period he called up Kareena to be with him for whatever time she could manage at the hotel.

Sources say that Saif Ali Khan was expected to come directly from Alibaug where he had been shooting for Kunal Kohli’s upcoming flick. As he needed to change for the Brook bond’s Taj Mahal tea brand event being held that day, the organizers had arranged for a room in the nearby five star hotel. But when Saif came to know about this that it was not a suite but an ordinary room, he insisted on getting the room of his choice. Ultimately, he got his way and the hotel staff put him in a grand luxury suite on Sunday night, where he spent some romantic time with Bebo.

The buzz doing the rounds in the industry is that this is not for the first time that Saif Ali Khan has tried to mix business with pleasure. Earlier, Kareena Kapoor had followed him to Europe to be with him while he was busy with his shooting spells. Since the time couple started dating each other, they are constantly on the look out for an occasion to be together to spend some quality romantic time.

It may be recalled that earlier, Saif Ali Khan had tattooed Bebo’s name on his body to show his deep love for the beautiful lass. He had even cut his palm with a knife in Greece during the shooting of Yash Raj’s ‘Tashan’, when some of Kareena Kapoor’s friends told him to show his love for her by doing something unusual and special.

The couple does not seem to have enough of each other and wants to enter into wedlock as soon as possible. There were even talks of their secret marriage recently but Saif and Kareena denied this. But the way, Kareena has been trying to befriend Saif’s children Ibrahim and Sara from his earlier marriage with Amrita Singh, the day is not far when the couple will be seen officially married.

Hmm…..hmm….seems to be a case of khullam khulla pyar karenge hum dono from the side of Bebo and Saif, no??

Kalloori - movie review

Kalloori is a brilliant example of perfect casting - Akhil, the girl who plays Kayalvizhi and the rest of the gang, and of course Tamanna, who’s ticket to fame till recently was being mistakenly identified online as the infamous bar girl Tarannum - the casting here simply steals the show. The milieu, dialogues and the narrative is achingly real, with Joshua Sridhar’s music working superbly in the background. The silent, untold romance between Akhil and Tamanna is handled with amazing maturity and intelligence - every stroke of directorial touch working big time in identifying and presenting the first signs of love oh-so beautifully. My predominantly city-led education wouldn’t have let me identify with the goings-on of a small town arts college, but the three years I’ve spent in Salem held me in good stead, in getting somewhat close. If director Balaji Shaktivel intended to give a rude jolt to his audiences through that unexpectedly harsh climax, he’s succeeded. It’s mighty sudden, though a tad too rude for a film that, for most parts, is hopeful. Like Kaadhal, Kalloori showcases accurately and with heartwarming flourishes, the uncluttered lives of a Tamilnadu we city dwellers have learned to leave behind and ignore.

Trisha and Dhanush for Jab We Met Remake

Bollywood hit ‘Jab We Met’ starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor is going to be remade in Tamil. The distributors of the film, Shree Ashtavinayak Cinevision Ltd, announced that Jab We Met will be remade in four South Indian languages Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam by corporate entity Moser Baer The DVD rights of the movie when made in any of the four languages, are in the hands of Moser Baer.

The current buzz is that Danush and Trisha have been roped in to play the leads in the Tamil version of the movie. A number of heros like Paruthiveeran Karthi, Madhavan etc were approched for the role but could not be finalised. Finally they zeroed in on Danush and Trisha.

Aish in Robo

Looks like the former miss world has finally signed on the dotted lines to act in Superstar Rajinikanth’s forthcoming movie Robot.

The buzz is that the Bollywood beauty has been paid a bomb of 1.5 crores for the movie and it is said to be the highest amount ever paid to an actress. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is said to have confirmed to the media in an interview to a popular channel that she is doing Shankar’s Robot.

Robot is already associated with big names like Superstar Rajinikanth, A.R Rahman, director Shankar, Cinematographer Nirav Shah, art director Sabu Cyril and now the addition of Aishwarya to the crew is just adding another feather to the already beautiful cap.

Will all these Robot has all the ingredients to create history in Indian Cinema.

Taare Zameen Par - movie review

Finally a break from the current lot of good for nothing movies Bollywood is offering. Taare Zameen Par is an entertaining movie with a strong message that every child is special in his/her own way. All they need is for their talent to be discovered and nurtured. The way the director has handled such a challenging story with a great simplicity, maturity and sensitivity is so amazing. Taare Zameen Par makes its place in our heart and it will be remembered as an outstanding work of cinema for years to come.

Welcome - movie review

Welcome rounds off 2007 as Aky’s year. With Welcome he wards off a stiff challenge from SRK for the actor of the year accolade, though honestly speaking he plays second fiddle to both Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar. The hallmark of Welcome lies in its moments. The comedy is situational and manages to make the audience laugh even in a serious scene. The editing is sleek and the pace of the movie is controlled. A complete family entertainer that leaves the entire audience in splits.

Robot to be animated by OCHER Studios

Shankar could not have chosen a better person for graphics of Robot. Since the movie will have a lot of computer graphic work Shankar has decided to start with the CG work as early as possible and the number one person who came into the mind of the director was Soundarya Rajinikanth who has done a sensational work in her animation movie Sultan the warrior.

Shankar is known to use top-class quality and the work for the movie will be carried out under the guidance of Ocher Studio. Soundarya’s talented 80 member crew will design the Jeano, the Robot companion of the Superstar within six months.

In the meantime, Shankar has made suitable changes in the script of Robot for Tamil audience and has got the approval of the superstar for the script.

Aary become a Cannibal

Director Bala is known for his different kind of thinking in his movies. Remember Sethu where in the hero Vikram returns to the mental asylum after his lover dies and in Pithamagan, Vikram was shown as being born in a graveyard and his characterization also resembles Stone Age man.

Bala has taken a step further and the buzz is that in his forthcomming movie Naan Kadavul hero Arya will be shown eating the dead body of his lover in the climax. This seems like an extreme step in Cannibalism even for a innovative director like Bala.

Wonder what the censor board is going to say for that!!

Vijay grooves with Yogi B

Remember Yogi B’s racy Engeyum Eppodhum from Polladhavan. Now Yogi B is all set to groove once more on the Tamil silver screen and this time with none other than Ilayathalapathi Vijay in his next most awaited movie Kuruvi.

This talented singer from Malaysia will groove and sing this time not for a remix song but for a original Vidyasagar composition. The movie is said to be racy and Suman, Ashish Vidyarthi are set to play the negative characters in the movie.

The shooting of the movie is complete in Malaysia and Chennai and next week the shoot of the film moves to a quarry in Salem, and from there to Theni and later they will be shooting near Pune.