January, 2009

In these days of meltdown, due to worldwide recession the producers in Kollywood are also badly hit. The cost of movies is going through the roof due to lavish shoots abroad. The latest we hear is that Vishnu Vardhan making Sarvvam for leading producers Ayngaran International has decided to do some cost cutting. Vishnu was to shoot the last song of his film with his lead artist Arya and Trisha in the exotic locales of New Zealand. Continue

News and stills about Endhiran is making way to the media though director Shankar is cleverly trying to conceal the news and the click shots of the shooting in progress. Though Shankar was well aware from the day he commenced this project that its lead stars -Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – would attract the media attention, no matter what. Continue

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan had to wait for 46 years before he could get the autograph of his idol, Dilip Kumar. In his latest blog entry, Bachchan who called Dilip Kumar as an institution in himself talks about how he as a child had unsuccessfully attempted to get an autograph from his superstar and had to wait for the premiere his film “Black” to finally get hold of one.

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After Aamir Khan`s directorial debut “Taare Zameen Par” failed to get an Oscar nomination in the foreign film category, the superstar has said that he does not make films for “awards” but for the “audience”.“I don`t make films for awards. I make films for the audience. The audience, for which I have made the film, really loved it and the audiences outside India have also loved it. What I am trying to say is that film has been well loved across the globe and that for me it is extremely heartening and something that I give very high value to,” Aamir said in an interview to a news channel.

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Allah Rakha Rahman’s journey is no less incredible than that of the protagonist of Slumdog Millionaire. From a South Indian regional composer with a National award for his debut film 16 years back, Rahman has now won three nominations at the Oscars for his songs in a mainstream Hollywood film

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When Hindi comedy film “Chandni Chowk to China” ruffled Nepali sentiments by wrongly asserting that the Buddha was born in India, it was not an isolated mistake, say many Nepalis. They feel that Bollywood has been “stereotyping” and “belittling” the Himalayan nation over the years.”India’s intellectuals have a tradition of looking down on Nepal,” says film director Yubaraj Lama, who is also a member of the Nepal Film Development Board.

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The latest buzz from filmnagar is that Madhu Mantena (Cousin to Ram Gopal Varma) who produced Hindi Ghajini along with Allu Arvind is planning to remake Telugu Arundhati in Hindi. He is currently negotiating with producer Shyam Prasad Reddy for the remake rights.

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The Election Commission is hard put to find “non-political” film stars from Tollywood for its pre-poll advertisement campaign this time.Chiranjeevi is heading a party of his own and other top stars including Nagarjuna, Balakrishna, Junior NTR, Mahesh Babu, Tarun and Dr Rajasekhar are all supporting some political formation or the other.

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Hats off to Bala and producer K.S Sreenivasan of Naan Kadavul, they have marketed the film very well.All distribution rights of the film worldwide have been sold at decent prices.Naan Kadavul, has been nearly three years in the making and went through two producers before Sreenivasan picked it up. And when Zee TV backed out after buying all rights, the world around Bala crashed.

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Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s popular story Saarapallam Samundi was made as ’Uliyin Osai’ recently. Starring Vineeth and Keerthi Chawla in the lead roles, the movie was an average grosser at the box office.After ’Uliyin Osai’, the producers of the movie, Arumuganeri S P Murugesan has decided to one more film again inspired by Karunanidhi ’s short story.

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While it has become a fad for our stars to visit colleges for inter-collegiate culturals, Ajith was recently in a privately run college in the outskirts of Chennai for an entirely different preposition. Though everybody knows about his passion for racing and other sporting events, little did anyone realize that he is also adept in aeromodelling. He was seen demonstrating to the students to assemble and fly scaled models using remote control.

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Both Simbu and Gautham Menon are riding high on the success wave of their last releases, Simbu with Silambattam and Gautham with Vaaranam Aayiram.It is now heard that these two celebrities are all set to work together. Gautham who is said to be ready with multiple scripts, has been planning to make a couple of Telugu films.

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After receiving immense praise for his role in Golden Globe winner ‘Slumdog Millionaire’,Dev Patel has expressed his desire to work with his ideal star – Will Smith. Patel confessed that he’s a huge fan of the ‘I’m Legend’ actor – and once waited at a premiere for three hours just to get a photo with the actor.

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Career diplomat and British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata, Simon Wilson now has a new role to play- as a detective. However, this is not in real life but in reel.Wilson, who has previously dabbled in amateur theatre is excited about donning the long coat and hat of fictional super sleuth Sherlock Holmes.The diplomat plays the cameo in the Kolkata-sourced Hindi movie “The Diamond Murders” directed by Ashoke Viswanathan.

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