Mankatha collects 81.72 lakhs in UK

Ajith's 50th movieMankatha has taken a phenomenal opening not just in India, but overseas as well. Directed by Venkat Prabhu,Mankatha is creating a buzz in the state as it had the second highest opening post Rajinikanth's Enthiran. The latest buzz is that the film has collected Rs. 81.72 lakhs in its opening weekend in United Kingdom.

Music director Yuvan Shankar Raja's peppy track and the racy background score are already the talk of the town. Apart from Thala Ajith, Mankatha also has Trisha, Arjun, Anjali, Andrea, Premji, Vaibhav, Mahanth, Ashwin, Lakshmi Rai and Jayaprakash in prominent roles. The film is produced by Cloud Nine Movies and released under the Sun Pictures banner. Mankatha is an action thriller which narrates the story of match-fixing sagas in international cricket matches. Arjun plays the role of an investigative officer officer who takes up the task of exposing the bookies. Thala Ajith plays the role of a cop-cum-gambler.

Radha Mohan-Naga Chaitanya film titled Gouravam?

Young Tollywood hero Naga Chaitanya's proposed bilingual, made under the direction of Radha Mohan in Telugu and Tamil, might be titled Gauravam, according to reports.
This will be the third film by Radha Mohan, whose earlier films are the highly acclaimed Aakasamantha and Gaganam. Notably, Naga Chaitanya debuted in Tamil with a small role in Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya andGouravam would be his first full-fledged Tamil film. The heroine is yet to be finalized. Other details will be announced shortly.
Naga Chaitanya is presently busy with the shooting of Ram Gopal Varma's Bezawada and Dev Katta's Autonagar Surya.

Trisha's home sweet home!

She is the heartthrob of many, but at the end of the day, Trisha is most happy in her home with her family. But like all young women of today, this career woman needs a pad of her own, a space where she can just be... and we hear that Trisha is planning just that.
The rumour doing the rounds is that Trisha is building a new home, a beautiful space for herself where she can just relax and enjoy her time. So where is this? We are trying to get the details; it is either in Chennai or Hyderabad.
Well, wherever she makes her home, we just want to congratulate her on this new venture. And Trisha, may this beautiful new home bring many more success and happiness into your life.

Samantha to debut in Bollywood?

Upcoming petite beauty Samantha is likely to make her debut in Bollywood soon.
As we know, ace director Gautham Menon is presently directing a Telugu-Tamil bilingual with Ram and Jiiva in the respective lead roles. Samantha is the female lead in both versions.
According to sources, the director is planning to make the film in Hindi as well and Samantha might be part of this version too. The hero is yet to be finalized, it is heard

Aish Dhanush to shoot Dhanush lip lock?

For all those who are wondering where the world is heading to reading the title, well we are just suggesting that there might be a lip lock scene between the lead stars in Aishwarya Dhanush's upcoming '3' which has hubby Dhanush scaring screen space with Shruti Haasan. This is according to recent reports circling in media about '3.'

The first look posters of '3' which released recently have created a lot of hype for the way each still has been depicted for the intimacy between the lead stars, which are at the same time appealing. Some scribes seem to have contacted the debuting director Aishwarya regarding the news circulating about the tell-tale smooch between the lead pair might take place in the film.

To this Aishwarya's reply is believed to have been quite diplomatic. '3's skipper is believed to have commented that if the script needed an intimate lip lock between the lead pair then it would be there in the movie. Produced by Dhanush's father Kasthuri Raja's RK Productions, the film is surging forward at a brisk pace.

This Dhanush-Shruti Haasan pair is also touted to be the next most happening pair to hit the Tamil film industry...

What's the Chinese song in '7 Am Arivu' about?

As time is ticking closer to September 22, the day when the audio album of AR Murugadoss-Suriya starrer teamed with Harris Jayaraj's music is about to hit stands, comes more tidbits on the most expected Suriya film of the year.

Set to tunes by Harris Jayaraj, the music track of '7 Am Arivu' has six song tracks of which one is a Chinese song, which appears during the part Suriya plays as a Chinese monk. This song interestingly was penned by Madhan Karky in Chinese. The lyric writer incidentally, while his stay overseas, had also learnt a bit of Chinese.

This Chinese number is crooned by a girl child who was specially flown down for this purpose from Singapore. The song, in the film, portrays an awe-struck Chinese girl, describing a man from India, singing about his heroism. For this song the crew flew to China and re-created a set with props similar to a 6th century Chinese village. The song sees Suriya performing along with more than 1000 artists from China.

The film sees Suriya and Shruti Haasan playing the leads and is produced by Red Giant Movies. Every detail of this Murugadoss magnum opus is creating a lot of expectations in the audience's minds, and '7 Am Arivu' is gearing up to hit theatres across the globe for Diwali.

Marketing lessons from 'Mankatha'

"The success of Mankatha can be used as a case study by those who would like to taste success in film industry. Effective usage of the internet is one of the important reasons behind the film emerging a super hit," said G Dhananjayan, Chief - south business of UTV Motion Pictures.

He was addressing MBA students at a private college in Chennai on Wednesday, where the crew members of 'Krishnaveni Panjaalai' conducted a seminar on effective marketing tools to take cinema to the masses.

Dhananjayan said: "No doubt that Mankatha is able to witness a grand opening because of Ajith. But at the same time, we should also take note of his fans and others marketing the movie on the web in a unique way."

Others who spoke on the occasion include veteran filmmaker Balumahendra and Pandiarajan. Balumahendra's speech drew the attention of students as he went down the memory lane and explained the making of evergreen movies like 'Moondram Pirai'.

I am neither on FB nor Twitter: Vijayakanth

Vijayakanth has come out with an explanation that he was not a member on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and has issued a warning that legal action would be taken against those misusing his name.

In a statement, the popular actor and DMDK president said, "It was brought to my notice that profiles, video and audio clippings in my name were doing rounds on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter."

The Leader of Opposition of Tamil Nadu Assembly further said: "I would like to clarify that I have no connection with the things being done in my name on social networking and other sites. This was being done without my knowledge."

Warning that legal action would be initiated against those misusing his name, the 'Captain' urged the persons involved in the act to stop it with immediate effect. He also requested his party men to keep a vigil on miscreants.

The first Hollywood film for the Superstar!

Bollywood Superstar Amitabh Bachchan has signed up his first Hollywood flick! To be directed by Baz Luhrmann, the film has been titled The Great Gatsby. The shooting of this 3D flick, which is made on a budget of $125 million, is now in progress in Australia.
Leonardo DiCaprio will play the title role in The Great Gatsby. Others in the star cast are Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke. The Big B will play Meyer Wolfsheim. As the title of the film indicates, it is an adaptation of the novel penned by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Selva and Dhanush’s song

There are six songs in Mayakkam Enna for which GV Prakash has scored the music. Interestingly, the film’s director Selvaraghavan had crooned one of these songs along with his brother and the film’s lead star Dhanush. The song begins with the lyrics Kadhal En Kadhal. Yet another song in the film, Pirai Thedum has been sung by GV Prakash and Saindhavi.
The track list of Mayakkam Enna:
Naan Sonnadhum Mazhaivandhucha,
Pirai Thedum,
Voda Voda Dhooram Korayala,
Ennena Seidhom Ingu,
Mayakkam Enna Theme,
Kadhal En Kadhal.

Prabhu Solomon makes it with a difference

Prabhu Solomon is shooting his upcoming film Kumki at Jog Falls in Karnataka. Though this is not the first time a film is being shot in this location, Prabhu Solomon holds the distinction of shooting the film at the highest point at the Jog Falls.
In Kumki, Vikram Prabhu, son of Prabhu, debuts as the hero and Lakshmi Menon is the heroine. Vikram is a mahout in-charge of a domesticated elephant trained to scare off wild elephants back into the forests.
Interestingly, for Kumki, the team is growing marigold plants in 5 acres in Theni and Otrapalam areas just to shoot some important scenes.

Director Sargunam’s wedding

Kalavani fame director Sargunam will wed Saranya on September 15^th. Sargunam and Saranya’s wedding is arranged by their parents and the engagement took place a couple of months ago.
The director was too busy with his forthcoming release Vagai Sooda Vaa that he failed to make it to his own engagement, it may be mentioned here. Sargunam has wrapped up the film and is now actively involved in his wedding arrangements, sources say.
The bride-to-be, Saranya, is an MBA graduate and hails from Thanjavur District which also happens to be Sarkunam’s home district.

Popular producer incurs losses due to Endhiran

Shakthi Chidambaram, a popular producer, director and distributor, has alleged in his police complaint that he suffered huge losses in distributing Endhiran. He claimed that Sun Pictures allotted just seven theatres for him in Chengalpet though he had the distribution rights for the entire area.
Shakthi Chidambaram in his complaint has said that the former Sun Pictures COO, Hansraj Saxena, did not allot one important theatre in the area to him and kept it under his control.
Due to this, Shakthi claims to have incurred huge losses and has now filed a police complaint against Hansraj Saxena and his assistant Ayappan. The police are acting on this complaint.

Another Bollywood remake with Arya and Maddy?

Everyone seems to have caught the remake fever. The latest on this is Prakash Jha's Hindi political thriller Rajneeti which is likely to be remade in Tamil. UTV Motion Pictures is particularly keen on doing the remake in Tamil.
As of now, it has been suggested that Arya and Madhavan will be essaying the roles portrayed by Ranbir Kapoor and Ajay Devgn respectively. Bharath might in all likelihood do Arjun Rampal's role. Talks are on with Prakash Raj and Sathyaraj to do some key roles. Lingusamy has been approached to wield the directorial baton.

Gautham Menon, Jiiva and Samantha spotted at Mayajaal

Gautham Menon is shooting an important scene for Nee Thaane En Pon Vasantham in Mayajaal with Jiiva and Samantha. NTEPV is touted to be a romantic flick and Gautham is shooting a scene today that has Jiiva and Samantha making it to the theatre to watch a film without their parents’ knowledge. The buzz in Kollywood is that Samantha has been offered a huge pay packet to star in this NTEPV.  
The shooting of this movie will take place at various locations in Chennai for the next few days and move on to other cities including foreign countries.

Srikanth pairs up with Avan Ivan heroine

Srikanth who has finished shooting for the multistarrer Nanban is on a roll career wise. The actor has just signed a new film with debutant director, Aslam. From this point onwards Srikanth has decided to get involved only in projects with strong scripts as he feels that a good story alone will win over the audience. The film is to be called Paagan.
The heroine is none other than Janani Iyer who rose to fame with her performance as the feisty constable and Vishal's love interest in Avan Ivan. Janani also feels that the script is a winner and is pleased to have this role in her kitty.

Heroine caught between Dhanush and STR

Richa Gangopadhyay could not have asked for more. She will be seen alongside two of the hottest heroes in the South, Dhanush and Silambarasan in Mayakkam Enna and Osthi respectively. Richa is very active on the social networking site Twitter and keeps fans updated on happenings in her life.
Recently some of STR's fans sent her nasty tweets berating her for allegedly promoting Dhanush's film more. Dhanush's fans jumped into the fray and things started to get a little heated. Richa pacified both sets of fans by saying that she has enjoyed working with both stars and does not favor either of them. The actress has also requested the fans not to drag her into their war.

Vimal film release date

The Kalavani team of Vimal and Sargunam are back with another offering, Vaagai Sooda Va. This period film set in 1966 has been neatly wrapped up and if all goes well will be released on September 23rd. Sargunam is getting married soon and Vimal has only recently become a proud father of a bouncing baby boy.
It appears that things are going great guns for the Kalavani team on the personal front and they are keeping their fingers crossed for Vaagai Sooda Va to repeat the breakthrough success of Kalavani. Iniya, the heroine who is making her debut is also hoping the film will do for her what Kalavani did for Oviya.

Vetri Maaran’s wait for Mankatha release is over

Director Vetri Maaran is to direct a film for Cloud Nine Movies’ Dhayanidhi Alagiri and this was made public some months ago. But this project was kept on hold as the producer was busy with the Ajith starrer Mankatha and Vetri Maaran was patiently waiting get his attention.
Now that Mankatha is released and running successfully, Dhayanidhi is free to move on to his next project. The discussions with Vetri Maaran have begun and more details about this project will be out shortly, it is expected.

Jiiva is grateful to his wife

Jiiva's spanking new restaurant, One MB located at Habibullah Road, T Nagar was inaugurated by his Nanban director, Shankar. The event was a big success and people had nothing but nice things to say about this new venture of Jiiva's. The decor and ambience came in for a lot of praise and most importantly the food was a big hit.
Shankar according to Jiiva was really sweet and supportive and the star was very grateful to his Nanban director. The actor revealed that his wife Supriya was the brains behind this project and it was her efforts that had finally paid off. Jiiva thanked her specially for her good work. He also thanked his friend and partner, Ajay Kumar for his support.

Mani, Gautham or Vijay for Ajith?

Ajith's stardom is on a new high, thanks to the runaway success of Mankatha. The actor is currently working on Billa 2 being directed by Chakri Toleti but speculation is rife already about his next project. The rumor mills became very active when it was reported that Ajith and Mani Ratnam had chatted for a bit in Hyderabad. The buzz was that the duo would do a film together. We are still waiting on that one.
On the other hand, Gautham Vasudev Menon and Ajith had planned to do a film together some time back but unfortunately their plans fell through. Now it has been suggested that talks are on to revive this film. The director plans to work on it after finishing his films with Jiiva and Vijay.
Finally, DTM director Vijay who has formerly worked with Ajith in Kireedam claimed that he is anxious to work with him again. He also has a script that will be perfect for the star. With so many tempting options being offered to him it is anybody's guess what the unconventional actor will choose to do.

Vandhan Vendraan crosses a hurdle

Director Kannan’s Vandhan Vendraan has come out with clean U certificate. Kannan is known for making clean entertainers (Jayam Kondaan and Kandein Kadhalai) and VV is certainly to be added to the list.
Vandhaan Vendran stars Jiiva and Taapsee in the lead roles with Nanda playing the villain. Santhanam is the comedian. The songs in this movie, which were released a few days ago, were set to tune by Thaman. PG Muthiah is the cinematographer and VT Vijayan in the editor of Vandhan Vendraan. The film is slated for release on September 16^th, 2011.

Jiiva too is my friend: Jai

Jai was in the news recently after the 'Subramanyapuram' actor reportedly came down heavily on Jiiva for his comments against Silambarasan. However, Jai now says Jiiva would not take his words in wrong sense.

"I knew Simbu very well for the past 10 years and more and that's why I spoke about my good friend's character. But Jiiva too is my friend and I hope he doesn't take my remarks in wrong sense," he says.

Admitting that he took wrong decisions by accepting few films that didn't do well at the box-office, Jai says, "However, I am now choosy and careful. I think twice these days before signing on the dotted line."

Jai is currently acting with Simbu in 'Vettai Mannan'. His other project 'Engeyum Eppodhum', which happens to be the maiden production venture of A R Murugadoss, is ready for release.