[For the Date between 2nd Jan'05 - 4th' Jan'05]
Super Star Rajinikanth - Padmashri KamalHassan donates Rs.21 lakhs Each.
The victims of Tsunami disaster are receiving help from all around.
For their part Rajini & Kamal had announced that they would donate Rs.21lakhs each to the Chief Ministers relief fund. Other actors also had extended help are Ajith 10 lakhs Vijay 5 lakhs, Surya 2 lakhs.
Kamal, who is in Mumbai to shoot his film 'Mumbai Express' & Rajini who is Bangalore to shoot his film 'Chandramuki' had announced that they would donate 21 lakhs each to help the victims of Tsunami.
Kamal in his statement said that, "The monstrous waves of Tsunami had killed thousands of children & elders. I have seen the images of those people in T.V & also the papers. My heart is heavy with sadness. To help those people who had lost their houses & properties, I am giving Rs 21lakhs to the Chief Ministers relief fund".
Rajini, who is at present in Bangalore said in his statement that "Whenever the number of sinner have increased too much in the world, innocent people will be affected because of that. This is a cruel act of God, which is beyond our comprehension. My heart goes out to the people who are all affected due to this disaster. I humbly pray to god that the souls of there people dead may rest in peace in heavens, & this kind of 'Mrithue Thandavam should not occur again with this manner, with this prayer I am giving Rs.21lakhs to chief ministers relief fund to help those people just as a 'service of a Squirrel'.
Maddy's new year resolution
Madhavan is a busy actor today. He has on hand a couple of Hindi movies, a cross over film & Tamil movies - Thambi & Priyasaki.
This busy actor says, to Mohankumars.Com™ "Though I'm happy to have got a chance to act in different languages, I love to act in Tamil movies & consolidate my place here.
"In 2005, I wish to concentrate more on Tamil movies & choose good subjects".
And that is bad news for competition.
'Kathal' - The surprise box office darling
"Kathal" - a small budget film made by noted director Shankar's Productions - is the surprise occupant of the top slot at the box office this week, pushing other Tamil films behind.
1. "Kathal": This is actor Bharath's third hit in succession, after "For the people" (4 Students in Tamil) & "Chellamay". Balaji Saktivel, who had earlier directed the Vikram starrer "Samurai", a mass entertainer, has this time made a sensitive love story. The success of "Kathal" at the box office reinforces the fact that if a film has a good story & if the treatment is genuine, it will be lapped up by the people.
2. "Manmadan": The success of "Manmadan" directed by A.J. Murugan has pushed young actor Silambarasan to the top position in the Tamil film industry.
3. "7G Rainbow Colony": This film directed by Selvaraghavan has been running to packed houses for weeks.
4. "Attagasam": Director Saran's "Attagasam" couldn't sustain its initial pull. In fact, it was at the top ahead of "Manmadan" when it was released during Diwali but Silambarasan surged ahead of Ajit as days passed. Saran who had had a big hit with "Vasool Raja MBBS" could not repeat the same kind of success. Nevertheless the film has done well & has satisfied Ajit fans.
5. "Desam": Ashutosh Gowarikar's "Desam" is the dubbed version of "Swades". Any Shah Rukh film will do well in Chennai. The same applies to the dubbed "Desam" too. "Swades" is said to be a flop in Hindi but in Chennai, both the Hindi & the Tamil versions are doing well.
A Stylish Mis'take'
The worth of an elephant do not decrease whether it is alive or dead. This saying fits Rajini very much.
Whatever we do however we try, there is always be somebody to say that there is something wrong! But when it comes to Rajini even his mistakes are considered as the right thing to do.
Recently, a song sequence in 'Chandramuki' was being filmed.
Before the actual take, Dance master Raju Sundaram was explains the dance movement to Rajini. The Super star listened & watched carefully & then said that he was ready to go for the take.
Raju sundaram called for the shot to be filmed saying, ready take & action. Rajini started dancing, but faltered in his movements & fell down. How can a dance master say that Super Star had made a mistake!
So the Dance Master went to the Super star & said, "That particular step (faltering) was stylish & in fact it was a 'Super step'"!
Hoping to bounce back with vigor
Music-composer A R Rahman, who is winning accolades in the international arena & scored music for many Bollywod movies, had a very bad year in Tamil film industry.
But for his New, his scores in other movies failed to leave any impression.
Now, Rahman has vowed to bounce back from this bad patch. He is scoring music for a handful of movies, which he is confident would go on to become big hits.
Rahman is scoring music for BF, God father starring Ajith & directed by K S Ravikumar & A/C starring Silambarasan.
Rahman's backers that he would score an hat-trick of success.
But he will sure take a lot of time for it.
Jyothika's gesture towards Tsunami victims
Jyothika had proved that she can be real active not only in reel life but also in real life.
Many people are giving helping hand to the victims of Tsunami. The artistes from Film world are also doing whatever they can to help the affected people.
Jyothika who cries in screen using glycerin, had cried really when she saw the suffering of the affected people in person.
Though she is very busy in acting many films, she found time to visit the affected persons by herself.
She made a surprise visit to Parthasarathy temple where many people are sheltered she also gave away food packets & cloths to the affected people. While she was handing over these materials, she cried openly on seeing the plight of the people there.
Sonia Agrawal out of favor?
Well, with actress Namitha being chosen to play the heroine in Selvaraghavan's next movie, Sonia seems to be no longer the favorite of the director.
Though Sonia went as far as to suggest that Selvaraghavan is his mentor in the industry, the director seems to have taken the safe option of playing another heroine in his film.
It was getting repetitive, was what one of his aides said.
Honey moon At last?!
The honeymoon trip of Dhanush & Aishwarya has been put on hold for quite some time.
Even after two months, they could not enjoy the bliss of newly married couple. Now at last, they found time to enjoy themselves.
The reason for delay was the fact that Danush is too busy acting in films. Because of this the couple could not undertake the arranged foreign tour. So, they passed the available time in local hotel. Now their fortune had changed for better.
For the past ten days the shooting of 'Adu oru kannakkalam' is being undertaken at Rajamundiri (Andra). Danush who do not want to be away from Aishwarya for 10 days had got her along with him. They stayed at Anand Resident in Rajamundri. During daytime Danush spent time in front of the Camera & from evening with Aishwarya.
The couple enjoyed their honeymoon like this for the whole ten days & returned back to Chennai in contentment & happy.
A look back at 2004
A look back at 2004
It was a eventful year in Kollywood. A total of 80 films were released with just a handful making it big.
While Vikram being conferred the National Award for Best Actor was the happiest news, the sudden death of actress Soundarya in a chopper crash stunned the entire industry.
Chief Minister J Jayalalitha showed concern for Kollywood by announcing a slew of measures including a clamp down on pirated VCDs.
The success of movies like Ghilli, Autograph, Virumandi, New, Adithadi, Kadhal, Madurey, 7G Rainbow Colony, Azhagiya Theeyae, Chellamay, Giri, Attagasam, Vasool Raja MBBS, Manmadhan & Maha Nadigan gave hope to the entire industry.
While Vijay had back to back hits in Ghilli & Madurey to emerge the top hero of the year, Jyothika with hits under her belt in Peralagan, Manmadhan & currently doing Rajni's Chandramukhi took the top slot among heroines this year.
While directors including Shankar, S J Suryah, Charan, Cheran took to production, the likes of Cheran & Suryah also tried playing hero with good amount of success.
The major upset this year was obviously Dhanush, who had a hat-trick of flops in Pudukottaiyil Irundhu Saravanan, Sullan & Dreams.
After a dull year, Ajith & Simbu were back on track with success of their movies - Attagasam & Manmadhan.
Director Manirathinam & Bharathiraja failed to strike a chord with movie buffs with their films Ayudha Ezuthu & Kangalal Kaidhu Sei respectively.
Among music directors Bharadwaj, Vidyasagar had a successful year. Among actors Sathyaraj acted in five movies, Sarath Kumar & Vijayakanth in four movies this year respectively.
Towards the end of the year, Kadhal, a movie sans any familiar face but a strong story-line & script succeeded at the box-office, ushering a hope among Kollywood.
Kamal, of course, had 2 hits - proving that class is permanent.
A new name to reckon with
With Kadhal succeeding at the box-office, new comer Sandhya has become a name to reckon with in the industry.
Offers seem to coming her way by the dozen in Kollywood now.
Sandhya however is not in a hurry to accept all the offers.
While reporting to Mohankumars.Com™.... She says, "I am a great fan of Kamal Haasan & actress Shobana. I want to stay like them for long time in the industry. Hence I would choose my characters with utmost caution".
Sounds a familiar dialogue. Sure, we have heard this before.
Vijayakanth becomes Enemy No 1
A true leader is not someone who earns good reputation in the beginning. A successful leader is the one who maintains his good eputation until the very end. You probably would have heard a version of this dialogue in 'Manmadan'. The dialogue suits Vijayakanth very well right now.
Years ago, Vijayakanth was elected the president of Nadigar Sangam. New elections should have been held last year. But, the lust for power made Vijayakanth take a voice vote & extend his tenure by another year.
Even before we conducted those programs, all the actors & actresses had donated huge sums of money towards repaying the debts. The amount had crossed Rs 1 Crore. Instead of repaying the debts, they simply started a corpus fund with it. then, they dragged us for the star nites. They didn't say anything about the amount of money that was collected through the donations either.
This had terribly angered Nallathambi, a stage & film actor. He began piling up allegation after allegation on Vijayakanth. With the elections due next year, his speech has found lot of support.
We had conducted Star Nites in Malaysia & Singapore to repay the association's debt.
But, nobody knows how much money was collected in the shows. They didn't mention it in the Annual Report. This is an insult to the members.
Ajith had contributed Rs 10 Lakhs for repaying the debts but Vijayakanth wanted himself to be the one who had paid the highest contribution. So, he refused to collect the Rs 10 Lakhs that Ajith gave. He took only Rs 5 Lakhs from him.
There are separate accounts for the Nadigar Sangam & the Foundation. They had simply given a tiny condensed version of the expenses. There were no details or signatures of any office-bearer.
These make it very obvious that there is lot of corruption in the organization. The association had brought out advertisements in the paper to thank the CM for removing video piracy. But the ads had only Vijayakanth's name. The association has members from various political parties. Vijayakanth had insulted everybody by printing the advertisement in green.
Parthiban was the one who had started the whole protest. But he was isolated & pushed aside. Things had become so worse that he had to resign his post in the organizing committee, he included.
In films, Vijayakanth wastes no time in lashing out lengthy dialogues at the enemies. But he is yet to reply to Nallathambi's allegations. Admission of guilt!
Ready to do any role: Nadhiya
Nadhiya, a yesteryear heroine, made her comeback quite successfully in M Kumaran s/o Mahalakshmi playing Jeyam Ravi's mother. The movie did well & Nadhiya was appreciated for her performance.
Speaking about her comeback, Nadhiya says, "I wasn't planning a comeback. It's just an accident. Editor Mohan & director Raja narrated the story to me & I was immediately impressed right from the word go."
The success of M Kumaran has naturally brought more offers to her now.
But Nadhiya is no hurry. She is just taking things at leisure. But she also says: "I am not choosy. I am ready to do any roles. But there should be more scope for me to perform".
Are the directors listening?
Tamil actors have worsened- KV Anand
A KV Anand had won the National award for his very first film. There was a time when people thought that cinemascope was meant only for action films. But KV Anand had revolutionized everything by bringing cinemascope in script-based films.
He is now busy with 'Kanaa Kandaen'. "It is not an accident for a cinematographer to become a director. It is a natural progression. The director has to simply know the story. He doesn't have to write it. This is the case with Hollywood & Bollywood. I had given the cinematography responsibilities to my close friend Soundarrajan because I wanted to protect the cinematographer in me," he said.
So, what's the story of 'Kanaa Kandaen' ? The film shows that there is only a thin red line that separates friendship & love. The line is so fragile that even a breeze can break it. This is what we are going to show to the audience.?
KV Anand is one of the soft spoken people in the film industry. But he himself gets annoyed when he starts talking about the present generation film stars.
"There was a time when Mumbai stars were notorious for their irregularity. You could never shoot a sunrise scene with the Bollywood stars because they just wouldn't turn up. But now they have become very professional. Unfortunately, our stars have become very irresponsible now. They don't turn up on time. Dedication is gone. Heroes insist that the producers & directors use the heroines, stunt masters & makeup men whom they recommend. These are evils we need to remove," the cinematography genius said.
Are the heroes reading this?
Ajith promises Rs 10 Lakhs
Three days have passed since the oceans had become a mass burial ground. Everyday, the death-count is rising sky-high. The global count has crossed 60,000 & in Chennai, the count has risen to more than 7,000.
For the people who had lost everything, the urgent needs are food, clothing, shelter & hope for the future. The film industry has joined with the state government to extend its help in the relief & rescue efforts. Vijayakanth & Surya have contributed generously to the fund. Ajith has promised Rs 10 Lakhs.
Vijay is going to give Rs 5 Lakhs. His father SA Chandrashekar had personally met with the CM & presented the check. The film industry is gathering funds for the disaster. They are planning to gather a huge fund like they did for the Kumbakonam victims.
Bharathiraja to enter small screen
Once he was a classy director who made films that was full of local sentiments & mores.
But somewhere down the line, Bharathiraja lost the plot & his essential grip over his craft.
The man who gave such classics like Mudhal Mariathai, 16 Vayathinile & Vedham Puthithu, was left making stupid & crass films. He looked increasingly out of sorts, & his last Kanngalal Kaidhu Sei was pathetic & desperate. His earlier one Taj Mahal was a disaster as Bharathiraja came more as the father to hero Manoj & than any director of a meaningful venture.
But now the news is Bharathiraja is all set to venture to small screen.
Bharathiraja is busy directing a 52-episode serial to be telecast on Tamil Thirai Channel, to be floated by Tamil Film Producers Council.
There is a proviso to this all. There is a question mark over this particular channel. So Bharathiraja had better watch out.
Bharath, Shankar & lady luck
Some people are lucky with some directors.
Bharath sure is. With Shankar, that is.
He has caught our attention with three films so far. Boys. Chellamay & Kadhal now.
Don't you see a pattern in all this?
Well, Shankar himself directed Boys. A one-time associate of Shankar, Gandhi Krishna, directed Chellamae.
The actor's latest Kadhal has been produced by Shankar & directed by his associate Balaji Sakthivel.
As it happens, Bharath's next venture February 14 is directed by Shankar's assistant Ho Chi Min.
So do we have a hit already in our hands?
Director flees at the actor’s invitation
Simbu had not only destroyed beautiful women in his film ‘Manmadan’, he didn’t spare his benami director Muruhan either!
The story actually belonged to the director, Muruhan. Simbu not only claimed the credit for the story, he also treated the director like his slave on the sets.
Though Muruhan claims that Simbu is like a God to him, in person, he is very wary of him. Simbu had invited Muruhan to participate in the story discussion of his new film, but it looks as if Muruhan has learnt his lesson very well.
He simply avoided turning up for discussion. He wouldn’t even come near Kodambakam, where the discussion was going on. But, unaware, Simbu kept calling him over his cell phone.
Simbu was supposed to compose music for Muruhan’s next film. Until the release of the first film, Muruhan simply nodded his head along. But, he wouldn’t even think about it now.
This is to announce that Simbu-Muruhan combination is never going to repeat.
Sundar C back to his strong suit
Sundar C has completed is movie Thakatimi Tha, which stars new comer Yuva Krishna & Ankitha in the lead roles.
Speaking about he movie, Sundar C says, "it's a hilarious musical entertainer with music-director scoring nine sensational numbers."
Interestingly Vivek & Tejashree play prominent roles in the movie. Vivek plays an important role alongside M S Viswanathan, Paravai Muiamma, Rajeev, Nirosha & Shakeela.
"Vivek will certainly bring the house down with his own brand of comedy," Sundar says.
"After an action packed movie, Giri, I have ventured back to my forte- humour,' he adds.
Story, screenplay & dialogues are by Selvabharathy, who directed he movie Ninathen Vanthai & Priyamanavale.
According o producer G V Raveendhra, who had distributed many Telugu movies in USA, "Thakathimitha is a bi-lingual movie (Tamil & Telugu). All shooting is completed & the movie would be released February".
Kollywood shares its grief
Kollywood's heart seems to be in the right place.
For all their other faults, Kollywood honchos usually rise up to the occasion when the going is difficult.
They did so at the time of Kargil. They did so at the time of water crisis.
They are now ready to step in when Tamil Nadu has been hit very badly by the Tsunami.
A condolence meeting was held Monday at South India Film Artistes Association & Captain Vijayakanth condoled the mass deaths due to tidal waves that swept the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Kerala.
On behalf of the Nadigar Sangam, a sum of Rs 10 lakh has been contributed to CM's relief fund.
At a personal level Surya has given Rs two lakh & director turned Cheran visited the interior areas of Mahabalipuram to console & help the victims of the killer waves.
Interestingly, a few other top heroes & heroines have also started privately helping the victims. Some of them have specifically avoided the media glare while helping the needy.
Keep it up, Kollywood.
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