Kollywood Hotshots

Speaking to a television channel, Kamal Hassan said, ‘I will be registering the title soon. Moo denotes three. The Tamil language has this beauty about it – you can tell a word in one syllable, like nee, naan, thee. I’d like to title my next film, post Vishwaroopam 2, as Moo.’

Kamal Hassan is expected to make this movie in Hollywood as well, apart from the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions.

Penang Muslim League president Datuk Najmudeen Kadeer urged the National Film Development Corporation to review the film, saying "it portrayed Islam in a negative light", Star Online reported.

The film's distributor Lotus Fivestar AV said it was told to stop screening the movie Friday. The film opened Thursday to packed houses.

"We will refund those who purchased tickets through advance bookings, or allow them to use it for other films," company director Datuk R. Ramalingam said.

The film had been approved by the Censorship Board.

A few movie goers, however, said it was a fictional work and people should be given the opportunity to watch it and make up their own minds.

A few people who tried to buy tickets were disappointed with the ministry's decision.

"There has been so much publicity about the movie and I really wanted to see it," said A. Chandran. "I hope the government will reconsider."

"Vishwaroopam" was banned by the Tamil Nadu government when 25 Muslim organisations objected to the film on the ground that it portrays the community in bad light. The Madras High Court also restricted the film's release till Jan 28. A judge will see the movie and decided on its fate.

The cult song has been premiered in almost all Bollywood music channels like MTV, Channel V, Zoom, Sony Mix etc. Probably this is the first time Hindi channels are going crazy over a Tamil song, not even our Superstar could create this kind of magic so far. Now his son-in-law Dhanush has done it!

Vijaykanth said that reporters should be able to gauge about Rajini’s health from his beaming smile. He said that he was confident about Rajini returning home very soon.

It may be mentioned here that Kamal Haasan had also gone to visit Rajini but he could not meet him.

Now there is confirmed news that Shankar Mahadevan will be composing music for this film. The shooting of the film is to commence soon.

Initially it was announced that Yuvan Shankar Raja will compose the music for this film. But now instead of Yuvan, the popular play back singer and Bollywood music composer has been signed for this film.

Shankar Mahadevan along with his friends Eshaan and Loy will be composing music for this film. It is interesting to note that the same group has composed music for the film Aalavandhan which had Kamal in dual roles. This film is being produced in Tamil and Telugu simultaneously.

A leading newspaper has reported that "Sonakshi Sinha, a year younger than Shruti Haasan is likely to be Kamal Haasan's heroine in his next film directed by Selvaraghavan".

The report says the film is inspired by Ridley Scott's Hannibal, a sequel to the classic The Silence of the Lambs with Kamal Haasan playing the role of a psychopathic killer made memorable by Anthony Hopkins.  Sonakshi will do Julianne Moore's role in the film.

The newspaper report further states that Sonakshi will hear  director Selvaraghavan's narration once she completes Joker shoot with Akshay Kumar  in Chandigarh.

The film will be made in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

However, when contacted Selvarghavan told: "As of now, nothing has been confirmed. Will break the news by next week".

Now Kollywood is abuzz that Rajini’s Rana, which is to be directed by KS Ravikumar, has drawn inspiration from Dasavatharam. According to a source, during the discussion about the ten roles and their unique characterization, Kamal and KSR created the best 13 characters and out of 13 they had picked 10 characters suitable for the movie.

The left out 3 characters are said to be the role played by the Rajini in the movie Rana. KSR is very close to both Rajini and Kamal and it is said that this is one more example of their friendship.

Selvaraghavan is busy now working on his upcoming film ‘Erandam Ulagam’ featuring Dhanush & Andrea Jeremiah in lead roles.

The director of the film KS Ravikumar and producer Udhayanidhi Stalin were also present to promote the film in Kerala.

At the press meet held, Kamal made it clear that the controversial song will not be deleted from the film.

Manmadhan Ambu is facing the wrath of the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) for the song "Kannodu Kannai Kalandhal" which speaks much about woman's desire and has also references to Hindu deities like Aranganathar and Sri Varalakshmi.

Kamal has written the lyrics of the song and sung it with Trisha. Earlier HMK had sent a notice to Kamal Hassan, Trisha and the producer Udhayanidhi Stalin asking them to remove the song as it hurts the sentiments of Hindus.

Kamal said at the press meet: "I do not think that the song offends Hindu sentiments. The Censor Board has passed the film with a 'U' certificate. The song will not be deleted ."

Buzz up!It may be recalled that the actor's previous film Unnaipol Oruvan, remake of Bollywood blockbuster A Wednesday, was firstly christened TI. Later, the movie bosses changed the name due to unknown reasons.

Kamal himself has penned the script and screenplay for this upcoming flick. He feels that the title would suit the storyline. Hence, he has finalized it as Thalaivan Irukkindran. The multi-starrer film features Mohanlal, Ravi Teja, Deepika Padukone, Genelia D'Souza and Trisha.

Gautami with daughter subbulakshmi and Kamal Hassan

The film will grace theatres on December 10, 2010.

Devi Sri Prasad will compose the music for this film produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin under Red Giant Movies banner. Kamal has scripted the story and screenplay and also composed some lyrics for this film, a major part of which is being shot in Italy, Spain, and Greece.

“It’s my longtime wish that celebrated novels be made as films. I am happy that Gowthaman has come forward to film Neela Padmanabhan’s much acclaimed ‘Thalaimuraigal’. He is a great writer whose work should be celebrated by one and all,” the veteran actor said.

He added: “Literature should be mixed with cinema. Only then meaningful movies could be made. Kudos to Gowthaman and his team for his honest attempt. I am literally happy about Magizhchi.” Expressing gratitude to Kamal, Gowthaman, who is also one of the lead actors of ‘Magizhchi’, says, “It is a movie for everyone. This is one novel that impressed me and I read it over and over again. I actually spent 12 years writing the screenplay for this movie.”

Director Seeman and Prakash Raj have played crucial roles in this movie. Anjali and Karthika are the two heroines. According to the director, Vidyasagar’s music plays such an important role that it has taken the form of a character in the film.

Kamal Haasan’s last major Malayalam film was ‘Chanakyan’ directed by TK Rajeev Kumar in 1989. Now after 20 years Kamal Haasan will be seen in Malayalam in a film ‘Four Friends’ directed by Saji Surendran.

Kamal Haasan plays a cameo as himself and all his portions will be filmed in Chennai itself. ‘Four Friends’ features Jayaram, Kunchakko Boban, Jayasuriya and Meera Jasmine as major casts and Kamal Haasan in his cameo comes at a crucial juncture of the movie.

Scripted by Krishna Poojappura, this youth flick narrates a story about three friends who are in a journey to search for one of their lady love of the past. The film is also said to have a remix version of the Hindi song 'Yeh dosti hum nahin chodenge' from 'Sholay'.

“We shot for almost a month for the first schedule. We were rushing around like mad people, rehearsing and shooting our scenes. Though we were all abroad and sailing around in a cruise ship, work was very taxing. But I’m definitely not complaining. It was so nice to work with veterans like Kamal sir and K.S. Ravikumar sir. And getting back with Madhavan and Trash (Trisha) was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Sangeetha said to a leading English daily.

“The unit will decide the locations in another 20 days and we should be on board soon. We’ve shot almost 65% of the film in the first schedule. In fact, Kamal sir and I are almost done shooting for our parts. Only Trash and Maddy have to shoot for theirs now,” she added.

Akshara is in Mumbai and is said to be on the sets of Bollywood producer Smita Thackeray’s production titled ‘Society’, which in fact features her mummy Sarika and other veteran actors like Dimple Kapadia, Randhir Kapoor, Seema Biswas and Om Puri.

According to sources, the 19-year-old gal is there to assist the director of the movie, Rahul Dholakia. Story goes that when mom dearest Sarika came to know about her love for filmmaking, she said to have suggested Akshara to the filmmaker. Sarika earlier had worked with Dholakia for his ‘Parzania’, which was well-acclaimed.

Sarika thought that he would be the best mentor for her daughter and requested him to take Akshara as his apprentice. So here we go, Akshara has joined the sets and she’s now in the ‘Society’, the movie we mean!

It may be recalled that Anu was married to Vikas about 10 years ago but later divorced him on grounds of incompatibility.

She has acted in a number of Tamil films including Indira in which she was the leading lady. The film was directed by Suhasini Mani Ratnam, her cousin. Anu is also a popular television host and has modeled for a lot of commercials.