Kollywood Hotshots

For, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday announced that maestro Ilayaraja will be honoured with an award named after legendary Carnatic music exponent M S Subbulakshmi.

According to an official release, ace writer Jayakanthan and danseuse Padma Subramaniam will also be honoured along with Ilayaraja. While Bharathi award will be presented to the Sahitya Academy Award winner, the Bharathanatyam guru will be given with Balasaraswathi award.

The award carries a purse of Rs one lakh each, the release added. The State government, while moving the demand for grants for Tamil Nadu Tourism and Culture department for the year 2008-09, had announced that eminent literary scholars and artists would be honoured with awards on the lines of ‘Kalaimamani’ award. Accordingly, the awards were announced on Monday.

Two days back they shifted to the cold and windy Hong Kong.

Some crucial scenes and a song composed by Harris Jayaraj are being shot by ace cameraman Ravi K Chandran.

Murgadoss is a fast worker and with this schedule nearly 75 percent of the film will be completed.

7am Arivu is produced by Udhayanidhi Stalin's Red Giants, and is one of the biggest movies on the floor.

It is said to be an action packed entertainer. Murgadoss feels his script will once again triumph, as the story is in a different genre.

Two weeks into the release of ‘Manmadhan Ambu’, Oviya now says she regrets that she accepted the offer to star in the film.  She is especially unhappy that her role had been pruned down ‘heavily’ in the ultimate version of the film.  The charm of having been part of a ‘Kamal-starrer’ has waned away, she admits.

In the final analysis, it turned out that Oviya did nothing more than fetching snacks to Madhavan in the film.  “I agreed to the offer mainly because it stars Kamal Sir in the lead.  I’d have been happy even if I was shown in 3-4 sequences.  Unfortunately, I just appear in not more than a couple of sequences.

“It would have been far better if I had been shown at least in a single frame with Kamal Sir.  Now, I’m being made to regret what I did,” says Oviya, disappointment writ large on her pretty face.

"Well, I’m going to sleep at home on December 31 because I’m shooting from January 1. So yay! Going to sleep like a baby!," the actress wrote on her page on a microblogging website.

Meanwhile, Kollywood pundits have been predicting that Hansika would rule Tamil cinema in 2011 as she has not just one, but three promising projects in hand.

They are 'Velayudham' with Vijay, 'Maappillai' with Dhanush and 'Engeyum Kadhal' with 'Jayam' Ravi. It is to be noted that she is already an established face in Tollywood and Bollywood.

"I am not the woman in the video. What has happened in the last few months has been fabricated," Ranjitha said at a press meet in Bangalore in her first public appearance after the sex scandal broke out in March.

Ranjita also lodged a police complaint on Thursday against Lenin Karuppan, former driver of Nityananda, who reportedly captured the said video showing the swami in the sex act and then released the video clippings. In her complaint, she accused Lenin of maligning her image.

Ranjitha said she had no knowledge about alleged sexual exploitation by the swami. "I do not know anything about this. I came to know it only from media reports." She, however, asserted that she has been a devotee of Nityananda for over a year now as she was interested in social work and spirituality.

The actress claimed that media had hounded and maligned her just because she was a public personality. She denied she had absconded after the video was first telecast by some Tamil TV channels.

"I was scared. I was threatened. Hence I left for the United States on March 3 and returned on June 14. I am an ordinary woman with my own fears. I did not know what will happen to me or to my parents. So I went away. I was not absconding," she said, adding that though the video episode had harmed her career, she is still getting offers.

It may be recalled that the theatre owners are distraught with Vijay as his earlier films did not do well and the actor refused to take responsibility for it and compensate the losses. With just about 70 theatres willing to screen Kaavalan, which is slated to be a Pongal release, the filmmakers are contemplating their next move. Will Kaavalan finally see the light of the day during this Pongal?

We congratulates this wonderful actress and her husband on their parenthood and wishes all of them a very healthy and happy life.