Vijay – Nayan in Bangkok

Last week Ilayathalapathy Vijay, director Prabhu Deva and a couple of fighters left for Bangkok to shoot a deadly action scene along with Chinese fighters for Ayngaran International's Villu.

The film is almost 70 percent complete, and is said to have come out well. These days Vijay keeps on praising Prabhu Deva and his commitment and dedication to his work. Three more songs of the film are being planned and it will be in some exotic foreign location.

Villu will be ready for release for Pongal 2009, on January 14, Vijay and Prabhu Deva's lucky day when their super hit Pokkiri released two years back.

Eanthiran – The Robot: The exclusive first look!!

Shankar starts Rajini’s Eanthiran – The Robot shooting with style. The first official publicity design has been released in media and the posters rock almost in the cities of the state.
The important aspect that we came to know through the design is Rajini’s appearance without his manly mustache. But an insider of Shankar’s camp reveals that the director is having some novel ideas to show Rajini in a completely different look and surely it will be a revelation to Superstar Rajini’s fans.
For the first time in the history of Rajini’s films, the heroine’s name also equally appears in the publicity designs with Rajinikanth.
Official sources from Shankar’s camp confirmed that it is Rajini only suggested the director to give equal importance to the heroine Aishwarya Rai also.
Since her name was discussed for Rajini’s lady love from the days of Padayappa, the dream comes true only in Eanthiran – The Robot. So Rajini asked the director to give equal importance to the former Miss Universe and numero uno of Indian female artists.
According to the original story (written by Sujatha), there are two powerful characters in the film. The yet to disclosed secret is our superstar is going play both the roles, one is the human and the other one is powerful robot.
The name of the heroine in this film is Nila and there will be an important character comes to entertain the children. It is Jeano, the Machine Dog with the sense of human.
Keep watching this space… A lot more come on superstar Rajini’s never ever magnum opus of Indian screens, Enthiran- The Robot!

Lekha Production in Silver Jubilee year!

There is a challenging story behind every man’s successful career. Those stories are becomes great lessons to every young man who fights with the current social setup for achieve something big in their life.

Lekha Rathnakumar, one of multi faceted personality in Tamil film industry is just another example for this.
He just started his Lekha Productions as a small venture in the early eighties with the investment of Rs.50 that too given by his close friend Shankar. Now it became one of the pioneer in producing ad films, production music and tele film making. In this silver jubilee year, the company will enters in to the big silver screen also with producing a grand love thriller.

Lekha Production started small and has grown to this stature in the field of advertising.

Lekha Rathnakumar, the man behind all these achievements says:
I was born into a rich family in Virudhunagar town. My father is a businessman and well known person in the area. At the age of 12, I have been good with my printing knowledge. Mimicry is one of my favourite arts. I have even spoken like Sivaji and MGR even in their presence, and earned their appreciation. Everything gone smoothly, but one day I was forced to come out of my rich family and struggling for my life in the broad streets of Tamil Nadu. At that time I was married and even got a child also. All were happened just because of misunderstandings with my father.
A good friend of mine, Shankar gave me Rs.50 at that critical position and with that money I came to Coimbatore and spent the initial days in the platforms of that cold city. An Agarbathi advt banner erected near RS Puram gave me some new idea and also the first break.

One day I met the owner of the Agarbathi after a long long wait. He liked my approach and convinced my ideas and gave me an order for making 3 lakhs labels. That was my successful business. After that I got many such orders and slowly settling in life. Meanwhile my rifts with the family also disappeared but I wanted to succeed in my own challenge. So I came to Chennai and making ads and television serials.
I directed writer Rajesh Kumar’s Iruttil Oru Vanambadi for Doodharshan. It was big success in those days and I continued to direct serials for Doodharshan…”
Though he succeeded in making Telefilm through his Lekha Productions, he became popular with the consumer friendly ad film for Idhayam Nallennai, ‘Ithu Pombalainga samacharam…’
“I’m following an ethics throughout my career. Though many have approached me to make ad films for their oil brands, I never accept those offers and firm on my policy to stick with a single brand. Popular actresses Chitra (Nallennai Chitra), Jyothika, Sneha and other have appeared in my ads and became more popular…”
Lekha, once started his life with just a 50 rupees note given by his friend is now doing business with Germany based Sonoton. He has clients in Hollywood too. His maiden venture in big screen will be launching soon. No doubt, the whole episode of Lekha’s career spanning 25 years is a fine lesson to all the upcoming youngsters in Kollywood.

Shankar officially announced Enthiran – The Robot!

Here is the official press release of Director Shankar on the forthcoming Grandeur of Superstar Rajinikanth’s Robot (Enthiran – The Robot).
“With Super Star Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachan in lead rolls, the film is start rolling on September 8th at America.

The big movie production houses which involved into this grandeur venture are Ayngaran International Films Pvt Ltd. and Eros International.
Two fantastic numbers in A. R. Rahman’s music, is about to shot in beautiful locations of America and surrounding countries.
The other cast and crew: Cinematography R. Ratnavelu. Art: Sabu Cyril, Lyrics: Vairamuthu, Pa. Vijay, Editing: Antony, Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Costume Design: Manish Malhotra.

The Costume Designer of Men in Black, Batman returns, Inspector Gadget Mary E Vogt is designing the scientific outfits.
Stan Winston Studio (USA) who has worked for Predator, Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbor, Iron man, Terminator and I - Robot is doing Animatronics.

Yuen Woo Ping who handled stunt for many Hollywood movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Matrix and Kill Bill is currently working for Endhiran – The Robot.
All the three world renowned people working for an Indian movie is for the first time.
Hollywood companies like ILM, Tippet, Café EFX; and Hong Kong companies like Centro and Menfond are going to work in the field of VFX. Visual Effects and Animatronics co-ordination: Indian Artiste.

K. Karunamurthi and C. Arunpandian produced the film behalf of Ayngaran films international and Eros. K. Vijayakumar is the Executive Producer.

Shakthi – Ramya Nambeesan in Aattanaayagan!

Shakthi – Ramya Nambeesan in Aattanaayagan!
P.Vasu's son Shakthi and Ramya Nambeesan starrer new film Aattanaayagan has been launched today at the AVM Pillayar Temple amidst the who’s who of Kollywood.

Produced by Lakshmi Movie Makers, debutant Krishna Ramana, a one time associate of Vikraman is directing the film. According to the director the film will be a pucca action masala with all the needy ingredients to entertain the viewers.

Ramya Nambeesan, another hot actress from Malluwood is going to share screen with Shakthi. Lollu Sabha Jeeva has acted in this film which has music by Srikanth Deva, who revealed that there are six songs.

Producer council president Rama Narayanan gave the first clap while the pooja was attended by AVM Saravanan, Sathyajothi Thiyagarajan, Mohan Natarajan, T Rajendar, Khushboo, H Murali, KS Srinivasan, Santhanu, SA Chandrasekar, Pyramid Saminathan, Sandhya and Shakthi himself. Aattanaayagan is the 27th film of LMM in its 16 years old career.

Amicable settlement in Kuselan issue; Exhibitors hail Rajini!

The 20 days old tussle between the producers, distributors and exhibitors of Superstar Rajini’s latest release Kuselan has reached to an end. All the three powerful associations of Tamil cinema have came to a smooth and amicable settlement today after the agreement signed between Rama Narayanan, the President of Producers Council and Annamalai, President of Exhibitors Association.

At the end of yesterday’s discussion, Rama Narayanan and Annamalai released a joint press release on the smooth settlement of this issue.
According to the statement, a section of media has wrongly projected the whole issue and portrays that all the exhibitors are against the Superstar Rajini and distributors association in Kuselan issue. The Exhibitors association also refused that they have never announced any non co operational movements against the producers of Kuselan i.e., Pyramid Saimira, Kavithalaya, Seven Arts and Ayngaran International.

“We are the people here for years. We know the business and its up and downward trends. So, Kuselan matter will not be an issue here after and it would be amicably settled by us. We would request the media not to project anything against the industry without proper evidences or official releases from us!” the report says.

Also the report owes that the members of all the trade bodies will never give independent statement or declaration about any film’s business without the knowledge of concerned authorities in future.

Meanwhile the exhibitors association overwhelmingly hailed our Superstar for his magnanimity and passion towards the industry people’s welfare.

“No doubt, Rajini sir is the person who always stands for genuine, magnanimity and greatness. We never targeted him at any stage in this issue. In fact we never demanded compensation from him. We have clearly mentioned this in our press statements also. But Rajini sir himself called us and heard our grievances and came forward to settle 35 percent of the MG as compensation. No one in the Industry is having this kind of great heart… We must thankful to the great soul Rajini sir...” say the members unanimously in the meet.

The President of Kanchi-Thiruvallur Theater owners association, Panneer Selvam also praised Superstar Rajini for his kind approach when he met him a week before with some of his office bearers.

Courtesy: www.rajinifans.com

Chakravarthy, the villain for Rajini!

Director Shankar has finalised an actor to play against the superstar in the magnum opus of India Cinema, Robot. He is none other than Chakravarthy, one of the talented actors of Tollywood.

Chakravarthy, one of the findings of Ram Gopal Varma is now playing the negative role in Vishnuvardhan’s forthcoming film with Arya, Sarvam.
After seen the rushes of the actor in Sarvam, Shankar immediately signed him up to do Robot, again as the villain opposite Rajinikanth.

Chakravarthy is really thrilled to play villain in the film, because he will be getting international exposure simply by sharing screen space with the superstar.
It’s also a well known fact that the villains in Rajinikanth’s films always get decent footage.

Both Sarvam and Robot are being produced by Ayngaran films. Sources say that Rajini liked Chakravarthy’s earlier work and Shankar was also happy to get bulk dates from the villain!

Interesting September line up!

The countdown for Deepawali in Kollywood is started now. Just 55 days ahead for the biggest festive season of Kollywood box office, most of the small and medium budget producers want to mint some cash through their releases and avoid a clash with biggies.

The release schedule in the month of September as per trade sources is as follows. Already the press previews also has been started. The Schedule:

September 5- Venkat Prabhu’s Saroja (doubtful), Sangeetha’s Dhanam, Majeeth’s Ki.Mu.
September 12- S.A.Chandrasekher’s Panthyam (Vijay in a special appearance!), Priyadarshan’s Poi Solla Porom
September 19- Cheran’s Raman Thediya Seethai, Kalaipuli Thaanu’s Sakkarakati
September 26- Surya’s Vaaranam Aayiram, Shakthi starrer Mahesh Saranya Mattum Palar and debutant Krishna’s (Vishnuvardhan’s brother) Ali Baba
However this is not a final release schedule, as producers keep changing their release date due to many reasons. Still the picture is not clear in the release date of Saroja.