It seems actor Arulnidhi’s Ashokamitran may not see the light. Sources say that the Karu Pazhaniappan directed movie which went on floor in February has been dropped. It was supposed to be produced by Mogana Movies and Thaman was roped in as the music director. It has to be noted that last year Arulnidhi’s Mounaguru directed by Shanthakumar had gone on to become a sleeper hit.

Ace director Shankar is the talk of the town and this time it’s not for his movie but for a different reason. The director known for his extravagant ways of film making has bought a Rolls Royce car. With this three crore Ghost variant of the car imported from UK, he has joined the elite league of Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan. The car was recently registered at the KK Nagar West RTO office and Shankar has got it registered with the number TN09 BQ 0008 by paying some extra money.

Every film lover is dying to see Kamal and Rajini again together, sharing the screen space. In fact there were rumours that Kamal would soon be resuming Marmayogi and that Superstar Rajinikanth would be a part of the film.

However, now there is a chance for us to see the two stalwarts sharing the screen space. In this era, where the masterpieces of Sivaji Ganesan and MGR are being re-released, one of director K Balachander’s masterpieces Ninaithale Inikkum, starring Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan is expected to re-release soon.

Prem Nazir’s Ishtam, a remake of Telugu hit Yemaindi Ee Vela is gearing up for its
release in May. The Balaji Real Media bought the rights of the Telugu version and roped in newbie Prem Nazir, an assistant of Chakri Toleti, to direct the film in Tamil.


The film is a romantic comedy, featuring Vimal, Kajal Aggarwal’s sister Nisha Aggarwal, Santhanam, Parvathi Nirban, Pragathi and Anoop Kumar. Thaman has scored music and Shekhar Joseph has wielded the camera.

As an actor Udhayanidhi Stalin, the hero of Oru Kal Oru Kannadi, has nothing to complain about. The BO collections and the rave reviews have given the debut actor a high. However, the producer in him is not that happy. In a recently convened meeting with media persons, he expressed his concern as a producer and the troubles he has been facing for his Red Giant Movies.

His latest release OKOK under his home production is yet to get the Entertainment Tax exemption. Drawing a comparison with the film 3, he said that U certification and tax exemption has been easy for 3, but his movie’s fate is still at stake.

He also said that as a producer he had to face trouble in getting a U certification for OKOK and said that he had to face several hardships for releasing the film that he even had to file a case in the High Court, to get the certification done on time.

He stated that his travails started off with his film 7am Arivu as it did not get the Entertainment Tax exemption on time. He also listed the names of movies which got tax exemption during the same time without any delay such as Velayudham, Marina, Kondan Koduthan, Kadhal Pisase, Kadhalar Kadhai, Nanban, Vettai, Nanga and a few others.

He alleged that the Government is trying to bring in politics in to his business venture, since his family is in to politics. He added that it just not troubles him, but the distributors and others who are associated with the film.

With the latest endorsement deal, Kareena Kapoor has definitely become the most-sought after face for advertisers.
The fact that her first film of the year with beau Saif Ali Khan did not hit the jackpot has not affected her popularity at all.
Kareena has been roped in by a beverage brand for an endorsement deal of Rs.5 crore. Reports say that the sultry actor now endorses 16 brands.
If Katrina Kaif allegedly gets Rs.4-4.5 crore for a deal, Kareena Kapoor has clearly beaten her. Kareena has reportedly shot for the first ad of the brand recently.

Kareena Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan look all set for a face-off at the Cannes red carpet this year, to be held from May 16 to 27.
While Kareena would be making her debut at the prestigious film festival, Ash is likely to return as the brand ambassador of the international cosmetics brand she has been representing at Cannes regularly for several years now.
The interesting bit about the two Bollywood stars participating at the fest is the connection they bear owing to Madhur Bhandarkar's upcoming film, Heroine.
Ash was initially cast as the protagonist in Madhur's film. In fact, the filmmaker and the actress launched Heroine amid much pomp with a photo shoot at Cannes last year. Ash even shot for a few days before it was announced she was pregnant. The actress had to let go of the project amid a lot of controversy and Kareena subsequently stepped in.
"It's an interesting coincidence that Madhur launched Heroine with Aishwarya last year at Cannes and he could be promoting the same film with Kareena at the same film festival this year," an insider in the film's unit said.
Madhur is scheduled to wrap up his film in early May, just in time for a special screening at Cannes. The film, though, is slated for a commercial release only in September.
If Madhur can finish his film on time, this will be Kareena's first outing at the French Riviera. For Aishwarya, her return to Cannes this year would mark her first major public appearance since her delivery last November.
Ash recently attended her first do in Dubai for a promotional event.
"It is too early to confirm the possible dates when Kareena and Aishwarya might be walking the red carpet at Cannes, but one thing is for sure. They won't be attending the festival on the same day. Traditionally, the appearance of Bollywood stars are phased out to avoid a direct clash," the source said.
It is unlikely, though, that Madhur's Heroine will be in competition at the festival. "Most Bollywood films that are screened at Cannes for promotional purpose and Madhur could go for a special screening to seek buyers in the European market," the source added.
While most Bollywood stars such as Aishwarya, Saif Ali Khan, Minissha Lamba and Sonam Kapoor have walked the Cannes red carpet as brand ambassadors of various products, the cast of Vikramaditya Motwane's Udaan and the Bengali film Chhatrak were the only ones to grace the festival as film personalities.
This year, Bipasha Basu will also walk the Cannes red carpet to promote her Hollywood debut, Roland Joffe's Singularity. Karisma Kapoor could also attend Cannes to promote her film, Dangerous Ishq. Arjun Rampal will also be present to endorse a liquor brand.

Russians who have grown up on a diet of Raj Kapoor will get to see an entirely new face of Indian cinema over the next nine days. And they will be taken on their voyage of discovery by three-quarters of the Three Idiots team - director Raj Kumar Hirani and actors Sharman Joshi and R. Madhavan.
The cinema showcase will be a part of the nine-day cultural festival in Moscow (till April 15) and St Petersburg (April 16-22) celebrating the 65th anniversary of Indo-Russian ties organised by the city-based cultural NGO, Routes 2 Roots, in collaboration with its Russian counterpart, Art Center Bereg, Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
The trio will not only speak about the journey and history of Indian cinema, but also meet their Russian counterparts to discuss possible collaborations. Sharman couldn't contain his excitement when he said: "It would be an entirely different experience sitting with Russian film lovers and watching Indian movies." Recounting a similar experience in South America, he said: "There, the people were visibly moved by our movies, I hope for a much stronger feedback from Russia."



External affairs minister S.M. Krishna will inaugurate the film festival along with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, Moscow's mayor, Sergey Sobyamin, and Ajai Malhotra, India's ambassador to Russia.
The films lined up for screening in theatres across Moscow and St Petersburg include A Wednesday, 3 Idiots, Tare Zameen Par, Jodha Akbar, Ishqiya, Fashion, Wake Up Sid, Delhi 6, Jab We Met and Agneepath. "India and Russia may speak different languages, but the language of cinema is universal," Joshi said.
The cultural festival will take off with a qawwali performance by the Nizami brothers (Ghulam Waris and Ghulam Shabir), to the accompaniment of whirling dervishes, and will feature yoga and meditation sessions as well.
News about the festival is all over Russian TV channels and FM stations, Routes 2 Routes founder Tina Vachani said, adding this was just the beginning of the yearround celebrations.

Indian actor Abhay Deol, who plays a Tamil IAS officer in film-maker Dibakar Banerjee's upcoming film Shanghai, took language lessons to get into the skin of his character and the director feels that he has surpassed Shah Rukh Khan's(SRK) act in his film Ra.One.

Bollywood superstar SRK played a Tamil game designer, Shekhar Subramaniam in his dream project. Now, in Dibakar's venture, Abhay plays a 40-year-old Tamil bureaucrat.

"I can say he did better than that (Shah Rukh's Tamil act). Before the shoot began, for three months, he (Abhay) had asked for a Tamil coach who can teach him Tamil alphabets, language and the accent. He had also asked me to rehearse Tamil lines with him before the shoot," Dibakar said here Wednesday night at the first look of Shanghai.

For Abhay, playing this role was not an easy task. "This character is alien to me. So I worked more on the language. The character that I play is egoistical, short-tempered, he is very reserved and a religious person.

The big stumbling block for me was the language. On the accent part, we did not want to make it sound stereotypical, as whenever we have had South Indian characters in Hindi films they speak in those typical accents," Abhay said.

"We had someone on the sets who was Tamil, who used to read the dialogues to me, I did study the language. I put on an accent only in certain words as we did not want to stereotype it," he said.

Katy Perry was in Chennai for a performance at the opening ceremony of IPL 5. Not surprisingly, everybody wanted a piece of the diva. The makers of Karuppampatti are particularly anxious that she do an item number for them and have approached her in an official capacity. Director Prabhu Raja Chozhan is hoping she will give the nod as the song will be perfect for her and it will be a casting coup of sorts in Tamil cinema.

The director added that the song has been composed by Kannan and been rendered by Bappi Lahiri. It is a high energy number that is certain to be a huge hit. Karuppampatti has Ajmal in a dual role.