Soundarya to remake Kannada film Circus?

Rajinikanth, CEO of the production company Ocher Studios, who is working ovrtime on her debut directorial Sultan – The Warrior, seems to have been fascinated with Kannada Golden star Ganesh's recent film Circus!

Soundarya has reportedly approached her brother-in-law Dhanush to remake the film in Tamil. But the actor hasn’t cotnfirmed his interest as he is occupied with 3-4 projects to be shot simultaneously, it is heard.

Directed by Dayal Padmanabhan, Circus revolves around the foolish and risky adventures of five friends, headed by prankster Dhanush (Ganesh). The fun loving boys live in a railway colony and the railway station is their regular meeting point. Dhanush’s childhood friend Priya (Archana) is in love with him, but he is not interested in her.

Three of Ganesh’s friends try to play a trick to mar the reputation of a train that runs between Bangalore and Mysore. But it leads to a dangerous situation and they do not know how to solve it. Using his intelligence and courage, Ganesh bails out his friends from the tricky situation. In the process, he also finds that a terrorist group hatched a plan to place an explosive on another train, defuses it and emerges a hero.

Abhiyum Naanum goes to Kannada

Director Radha Mohan's critically acclaimed Tamil film Abhiyum Naanum (2008), starring Trisha, Prakashraj and Prithviraj in the lead roles, will be remade in Kannada under the direction of actor Prakashraj, who produced the Tamil version.

According to sources, the Kannada version will have Golden girl Ramya playing the role of Trisha in the original and Prakashraj in the role of her father. The movie is not titled yet. The selection of other cast members is presently going on.

Inspired by the English movie Father of The Bride, Abhiyum Naanum was released in Telugu as Akasamantha in March.

Sindhu Menon in Eeram

Popular South Indian actress Sindhu Menon, who debuted as a child artist with Kannada film Rashmi (1994) and emerged as heroine at age13 with Prema Prema Prema (1999) followed by many films in all South Indian languages, will play a key role in ace director Shankar's prestigious Eeram, being directed by his assistant Arivazhagan.

Produced under the banner of S Pictures, Eeram will have Sindhu Menon in different appearances, sources said. The audio of the film was recently launched by superstar Rajinikanth along with director Sasikumar. The songs are being widely appreciated by the public and already rocking the FM charts.

Released under the Think Music label, music is composed by S. Thaman, who composed the music for the recent Ravi Teja starrer Kick (Telugu) and Sindhanai Sei (Tamil). Starring Nandhaa, Aathi and Sindhu Menon in the lead roles, Eeram is expected to grace screens in September.

Lakshmi Rai: Mammootty's favourite?

Popular South Indian actress Lakshmi Rai, who has grabbed the No. 1 position among Malayalam heroines after the mega-blockbuster To Harihar Nagar, seems to be the favourite heroine of Malayalam super star Mammootty!

After romancing Mammootty in two films (super hit Annan Thambi and average Parunthu), Lakshmi Rai will now be his heroine for the third time in director Shafi's forthcoming action comedy Chattambinadu, scripted by Benny P. Nayarambalam.

Starring Mammootty in the role of Veerendra Mallaya, a Karnataka-based Malayalee estate owner with a Kannada accent, the film will start rolling on September 9 in and around Pollachi. Produced by Mammootty's recently-launched production company Play House, Chattambinadu will a Christmas release.

LTTE funded Rajinikanth films?

While the sources for funding movies remains a great headache for the authorities, mainly because many sources remain unknown, a Sri Lankan minister alleged on Thursday that some movies by South Indian superstar Rajinikanth (Kuselan and initial stages of Robot, which was later bought by Sun Films from Ayngaran and renamed Enthiran) were funded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"The money was not sent directly. Millions of US dollars were given to a London-based Tamilian. He was asked to produce Tamil films in Chennai with top stars like Rajinikanth," Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Abdul Rishad Bathiudeen told a leading newspaper. He also said that "the aging super star received the blood money", adding that he was paid "lavishly" without elaborating how much money was paid.

Actor Rajinikanth, who is currently in Chennai shooting for Endhiran, chose not to respond to the statement. His public relations officer said the actor, who was informed of this, did not wish to make any comments.

Meanwhile, the Tamil film industry has sharply criticized the Sri Lankan minister's statements. Condemning the remarks, Ramanarayanan, president of Tamil Nadu Producers’ Council, reportedly said: "There’s no need for LTTE to fund a Rajinikanth film indirectly through anyone. And Rajinikanth has no necessity to take up a project financed this way. There are a lot of producers here waiting to do a film with him and he will not participate in such a project. Whoever has claimed it would have done so for cheap publicity, because they know anything about Rajinikanth makes its way to the headlines."

Dhanush to remake Maapillai

Dhanush’s next film is a remake of the 1989 super hit Rajinikanth film Maapillai with the same title.

The film, (often referred to as Padikkathavan-2) is going to be directed by Suraaj and produced by Hitesh Jabak.

Says Dhanush: “It is the only film of Rajinikanth that I always wanted to remake. I know that remaking old classics is not easy and by doing so, we are not disrespecting them. There are hundreds of youngsters who have not seen the old movie. If the same story is presented in a different format with improved technology, it will appeal to them”.

The buzz is that Suraaj is making the necessary changes to suit today’s youth audiences with more comedy. The hunt for the characters made memorable in the original by Srividya and Amala, are in full swing.

The basic concept of the film is based on Shakespeare’s immortal play “Taming of the Shrew”, which has a universal appeal, if presented well.

Dhanush also adds that, Maapillai will be the last and only film which he will be remaking from the Rajinikanth library of old classic..

Unnaipol Oruvan only in September!

It looks like Kamal Hassan will not be able to keep to his original plans of releasing his eagerly awaited Unnaipol Oruvan on August 12.

His fans wanted it as the date has a significance- 50 years back as a child artist Kamal’s first film Kalathur Kannamma was released on August 12, 1959!

The dubbing of Unnaipol Oruvan is going on and it looks like it will take another fortnight before the first copy would be ready.

Then the sales of the film has to start and it looks like the film will make it to the theatres only in the third week of September.

Another important factor was that Ramzan Fasting period is to start on August 21 and will go up to September 17, during which collections will take a big dip especially in Malabar area in Kerala and Nizam territory in Andhra.

And the film’s Tamil Version has Kerala’s biggest star Mohanlal, whose role in the Telugu version is being done by superstar Venkatesh. Both of them have advised Kamal to release the film only after the Noyambu (Fasting) period.

K.V Anand to direct Ajit’s 50th film

The Kollywood grapevine is abuzz that K.V Anand is going to direct Ajit for his 50th Golden Jubilee film!

The film a big budget action entertainer is going to be produced by the leading production house AGS Entertainment.

Ajit was back in Chennai from Malaysia where he was shooting for Asal on Saturday. He will be meeting Anand later in the week to discuss the proposal and script.

Meanwhile Anand has to wait for over a year before he can start his next film with Suriya. The actor by the time will complete Hari’s Singam, Ram Gopal Varma’s Hindi film where he is playing a cameo, and will be half way through A.R Murgadoss’s film.

So during this one year break, Anand can do Ajit’s film and make his 50th film memorable. Ajit and Anand would be a deadly combination of style, class and total entertainment.

Mani to start climax shoot of Raavan!

Mani Ratnam is planning to shoot the climax of his magnum opus Raavan in his favourite Chalakudy forest locations from July 16.

The buzz is that the artists who are doing this tri-lingual in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu mainly Abhishek Bachchan, Vikram and Aishwarya Rai have told the director that they have already given him over 100 days, and they cannot spare any further dates.

Mani and his buddy cameraman Santosh Sivan is planning to shoot the climax for the next 45 days in Chalakudy and Mysore forest areas. They have to shoot deep inside forest areas, for which permissions have to be granted by the respective state governments.

Added to that a few helicopter scenes inside forest areas have to be shot, for which special permission have to be obtained. Let us hope that Mani is successful in his mission to complete Raavan, this time.