Spice Cinema

Vijay – Nayan in Bangkok

2008-09-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

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!!

2008-09-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-08T12:51:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-03T04:13:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-03T04:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Sarath Kumar to play lead role in a Kannada movie!

2008-08-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Sarath Kumar plays in a tri lingual movie under the direction of famous Kannada film maker Om Prakash.
He will play as a commando on the trail of international terrorists in the movie.
The film will be shot in the exclusive locations of Kabul, the capital of Afganistan. Apart from this location, it is to be shot in Macau, Hong Kong, Bangalore, Madurai and Chennai.
The film will go on floors in November. It is scheduled for an April 2009 release, publicists added.

Om Prakash has so far directed 23 Kannada films.
According to a press release issued by producer Shankar Gowda’s office, the untitled venture will be made in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada and its music will be scored by Vidyasagar.
Currently, Sarath Kumar is busy shooting for ‘Jaggubhai’, an action thriller being directed by K.S. Ravi Kumar and his home production ‘1977’.

‘Jaggubhai’ was touted as the next major venture starring Rajnikanth after ‘Baba’, but Rajnikanth withdrew from the project due to his differences with the story.

It can be recalled that Sarath Kumar strongly hits the Kannadigas and pro Kannada activists during the fast organised by film personalities in Hogenakkal water issue. After this fast, the Kannada activists strongly condemned Sarathkumar and owed to protest against his future releases in Karnataka.

Let’s wait and watch how Sarath Kumar manages the Kannada activists during the release of his straight Kannada film!

A costly wait for Shriya!

2008-08-29T22:33:00.000-07:00

Hot actress Shriya is well known for her adjustability not only in reducing the size of her costumes, but extending her dates with the unit as per the need of the film!
But according to the sources she got bitter terms with a big venture in Kollywood recently.
The slim beauty was shooting with the Kandhasamy team in Mexico for a couple of month ago and spent nearly 40 days with the team there. But suddenly she is said to have gone back to her home without telling anything to anyone.
Later the director of the film, Susi Ganesan made hard efforts to convince the actress but the later has been moving ahead of her Telugu project.
With just few days of shoot left and Shriya gone missing, director Susi has decided that there is no point waiting for her anymore and has asked her to spare a single day to do the patchwork part.
Now the entire unit is waiting for Shriya’s nod!

Mallika’s dream hut construction in progress!

2008-08-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Bollywood's hot and happening actress Bollywood's hot and happening actress Mallika Sherawat's dream hut is being built at Vizhinjam near the well-known Kovalam beach in Kerala.
G. Shankar, the chief of Habitat Technology Group who is working on the hut, said that in two month's time it would be ready to move in.
"Mallika is expected to arrive here in the next few days and give the final approval to complete her home," said Shankar.
"This is a one hall and one bedroom hut and built with mud and overlooks the majestic Arabian sea near Vizhinjam. I'm sorry I can't reveal the exact location. The roof of the hut is yet to be decided and it would be finalised once she is here. Most probably it would be one with bamboo and tiles," added Shankar.
Reports indicate that the hut is coming up on a small hill top and one has to reach the place on foot. There is no road for cars.
The builders have taken abundant caution with the design because according to the coastal zone regulation rules, no permanent construction should take place within a prescribed distance from the sea. dream hut is being built at Vizhinjam near the well-known Kovalam beach in Kerala.

G. Shankar, the chief of Habitat Technology Group who is working on the hut, said that in two month's time it would be ready to move in.

"Mallika is expected to arrive here in the next few days and give the final approval to complete her home," said Shankar.

"This is a one hall and one bedroom hut and built with mud and overlooks the majestic Arabian sea near Vizhinjam. I'm sorry I can't reveal the exact location. The roof of the hut is yet to be decided and it would be finalised once she is here. Most probably it would be one with bamboo and tiles," added Shankar.

Reports indicate that the hut is coming up on a small hill top and one has to reach the place on foot. There is no road for cars.

The builders have taken abundant caution with the design because according to the coastal zone regulation rules, no permanent construction should take place within a prescribed distance from the sea.

Rajini is beyond success or defeats! – Mohan Lal

2008-08-29T21:51:00.000-07:00

Rajinikanth may have drawn flak from critics for his cameo in box office dud 'Kuselan', but Malayalam star Mohan Lal says that the Tamil superstar's stature is 'beyond success and failure'.

'Actors like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan are larger than life. They cannot be accepted in guest roles. I can get away with small cameos, off-beat roles, walk-on parts, anything. I'm playing a 90-year-old man in a new film,' Mohan Lal told.

'There're some actors in this country like Amitabh Bachchan, Chiranjeevi, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan who are above success and failure. They are blessed people. If you say I'm one of them, then I too am blessed,' he added.

Nayagan - Review

2008-08-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Nayagan is definitely an unexpected sweet surprise to those who closely watched media for the reports about the film’s hero J.K. Ritheesh. Compare with the recently released action flicks in Tamil, this one is far superior and a neat entertainment with needy masala ingredients!
Though the story is the mere copy of popular Hollywood movie Cellular, the new and fresh approach of the director made it enjoyable (already S.Ve. Shekher made a film with the same story for his son Ashwin’s debut).
Guru (J.K. Ritheesh) is honest but a tough policeman, who always believes in instant justice. He takes on the big baddies who are well connected in his fight to stop the drugs smuggling and mysterious deaths of young women.
On the other hand, Sandhya (Sangeetha) a leading doctor in the City is kidnapped by a bad guy (Anandaraj in dual role), till she reveals where her husband (Sriman) is hiding with some incriminating video tapes about his gang.
Sandhya using a broken phone of the kidnappers gets across to a young guy Sakthi (Ramana- really done an excellent job), who is running away with his girl (Keerthi Chawla) on her wedding day.
At a stage the department handed over the case to Guru and he has almost nearing the edge with his intelligent moves. Soon after many chases and twists Guru and Sakthi gang up against the baddies, leading to a stunning climax.
One must really congratulate, Ritheesh for choosing such a dual hero subject in his very second venture. His character is well portrayed and he has really done a fantastic job.
Ramana, other hero of the movie is doing his part meaningfully. In action scenes he proved his ability in realistic manner. Both Ritheesh and Ramana are the welcome duos to the present state of Kollywood.
Sangitha has done a good job in Naayaghan. Anandraj's dual role and Pandiarajan’s impressive cameo are other noteworthy. Vijay Babu, Keerthi Chawla, Anitha, Radha Ravi are also done their part well.
Mariya Manohar’s music is worth enough to an action flick like Nayagan. Director Saravana Sakthi has spun the story with balanced thrills, twists and turns.
On negative side, there is no big minus which is made everyone to enjoy the movie without any hiccups.
Of the whole Naayagan is definitely a fresh and watch worthy racy action masala!

Coutesy: www.oneindia.in

Namitha, the political heroine of Sundar!

2008-08-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

The title is fiery one and the cast and crew of the movie promises to the maximum entertainment. Sree Movie Makers’ Thee starring Sundar C, Namitha and Ragini is making news and this time it’s not just because of the sparks between the sexy Namitha and the hero.
Sundar C plays a dual role, that of a cop and a politician. I a scene he plays in a full nude scene! Sundar, the director turned full time actor says, ‘It’s a story of a man who comes with nothing to Chennai. So they decided to let the character come literally with nothing, not even his clothes. But in two months time he becomes a big politician.’
The shots were taken in very crowded areas of the city like the Central station area, Vadapalani etc. Sundar is upbeat that he gets to play two roles, each in a different get up in this film. He said: ‘I am confident that Thee will do very well because it’s a remake of Operation Duryodhana, the hit Telugu version.’
Ragini plays a homely character as Sundar’s wife with two kids in flashback scenes while Namitha plays a politician. In real life, Ragini is a relative of Sundar’s wife Khusboo and is happy to be doing her second film after Sandai.

Vijay to produce his 50th film under home banner!

2008-08-16T13:56:00.000-07:00

Ilayathalapathi Vijay is almost nearing his 50th film.
Started his career at the age of 17, the actor has completed 48 films so far in the past 15 years without any experiments or mask gimmicks. Following the footsteps of superstar Rajinikanth, the actor always aims to satisfy his fans with the needy ingredients to entertain throughout the movie.
Now he is playing the same youth role in the forthcoming Prabhu Deva directing film, produced by Ayngaran International.
His next film will be produced by AVM Balasubramaniam under the legendary AVM banner. This would be his 49th film.
The actor is having some plans to celebrate the launch of his 50th film. This film would be produced by his father S.A.Chandrasekaran under his own banners either VV Creations or Shobha Creations.
Chandrasekharan himself announced this in an audio release function held recently!

Kamal to share screen space with Japanese actor!

2008-08-11T12:13:00.001-07:00

Without directly acting in a single movie or single scene in Japanese, Rajinikanth is ruling the Japan Box Office as one of the Superstars of the country for the past 10 years!

All his Tamil blockbusters have dubbed in Japanese and released in large number of theaters in Japan in these years. Muthu, Arunachalam and Padayappa have rocked Japanese box office with huge collections. Even Baba also ran well and collected a lot in Japan.

After seeing the facts and BO figures, now his professional arch rival but real life friend Kamal Hassan also decided to enter in to Japanese film world, but not with a dubbing version of his earlier films. He is going to share the screen space with Japan’s number one actor Tadanobu Asano.

The film is set in Kerala and traces the origins of an ancient martial art form Kalarippayattu. Reported to be made on an estimated budget of 50 million dollars, the movie will be directed by Kamal’s long time friend Bharat Bala (Producer of Hey Raam).

According to a Mumbai based news paper, A.R. Rahman has already been finalised to score the soundtrack while the search is on for a leading lady with an athletic built. Though Kamal's official spokesman Nikhil Murugan didn’t deny the report he said it was too early to disclose anything as Kamal was out of India.

To be made in three languages Japanese, Tamil and Hindi. The film aims to clear common misconceptions about martial arts.

Sources say during his interactions with Jackie Chan at the music launch of Dasavatharam the actor expressed his keenness to work in Asia cinema. Asano has starred in more than 50 Japanese films including Vital and Zatochi. Currently the script is being worked on as the story set in ninth century BC requires extensive research.
The film is expected to roll sometime next year, after the actor completed his big budgeted Marmayogi.

Ameer to direct Ajith in a remake!

2008-08-11T12:05:00.001-07:00

Director Ameer, generally who does not believe in making remakes, commented that even he would love to remake a hilarious film Sivaji starrer Baley Pandiya if Ajith agrees to do the lead role.

He said that Ajith is a great actor and should shed his action hero image for comedy as well as trail-blazing roles like superstar Rajinikanth.

He also added that he would consider himself blessed if he got an opportunity to direct Ajith in Baley Pandiya’s remake.

Sources say that Ajith is also in the mood of agreeing this offer from a director like Ameer.

After heard all these, Ayngaran International found an opportunity in Ameer’s wish.

Rajini's Daughter to Produce Kamal's Film?!

2008-08-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

We dont know the percentage of fact behing in the following 'news' spreading in the Industry at present.

Kamal is said to have returned the advance amount to Pyramid Saimira and has reportedly initiated talks with Soundarya Rajinikath and Warner Brothers to associate himself with them!

Soundarya Rajnikanth, whose Ocher Studios is in the process of producing films in collaboration with Hollywood production company Warner Brothers, has already roped in ‘Jeyam’ Ravi and Raja for her next film. It is said that she has even given advance amount to both of them.

Kamal Haasan has reportedly sent the entire ‘script’ of his ‘Marmayogi’ to Warner Brothers’ bosses in the US for approval. Once Kamal gets the nod, he would be working closely with them and Soundarya. The reason for Kamal’s decision to switch from Pyramid to Warner-Soundarya combine is said to be the reluctance of the former to accept the increase in the production cost of the film from Rs.100 crore to Rs.150 crore.

But the insider says that it is Pyramid Saimira which came forward to withdraw the alliance from Kamal!