Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Kollywood Diary











She is curvy and can give the Trishas and Asins a run for their money. With a wicked twinkle in her eyes, she sneaks around the party circles of Kodambakkam, not wanting to be spotted by directors - she doesn’t think she’s star material enough. Be it a new film launch or a big fat celebrity wedding, Daisy can be seen stealthily eavesdropping on celebrities, gathering news and whispers.

So pucker up people, watch out for Daisy every month as she opens up interesting incidents from her Kollywood Diary of events. And do not miss her witty, saucy Daisy Speak comments made in good taste – Daisy ishtyle.


March - The Month That Was!

March was annotated with poojas, press meets, releases, audio releases, weddings, and sadly an unpredicted bereavement. It had Rajini written all over it. In less than a year of Sivaji’s release, he announced his next project.

Now off to the month’s events…

Movie Launches

“This is 50% Pasupathy’s film, 25% Vadivelu’s and only the rest of 25% mine,” Rajini announced to the thronging pack of journalists – including me of course – at Kuselan’s launch. As precious as his time is, he left in a jiffy after making that statement leaving the crowd asking for more!

Did you know Surya shed a lot of flab - not that he had too much of that before - as seen by me for the movie launch and press meet of Ayan? Nope, it’s not in an attempt to look younger than his younger sibling. It’s for the K.V. Anand directed Ayan where he stars opposite the Punjabi hottie Tamanna. And no prizes for guessing- the hot topic of discussion at the event was indeed the title.

Pyramid Saimira has decided to provide a fresh leash of life to 24 impoverished producers by co-producing their movies. Ten producers were selected in the first phase and the inaugural event was held. Upcoming directors will direct these films.

The other launches held in the month include Engal Aasan with Captain Vijayakanth in the lead and the Sneha Prasanna starrer Achamundu Achamundu.

Jeyam Ravi and his brother turned the audio release a little bit of a family affair - while Ravi revealed the plot details (although there is nothing to closely guard for the fact that Santosh Subramaniam is Bommiluru’s remake) Raja warned him not to let out the spoilers.

Speaking in Arasaangam’s audio launch, Vijayakanth declared that he has focused on songs for his new movie unlike his recent movies. “Songs will be visually rich,” he added.

Dhanush and G.V. Prakash supported the cause of Papparamittai – a kid’s music album.

Vallamai Thaarayo’s audio launch sparked a row and let the rumor mills churn out more gossip when Parthiban did not turn up for the event. Check out for Parthiban’s handwritten press release in this regard!

Thoza - with a partial bunch of the starcast of Chennai 28 - and Santosh Subramaniam’s press meet were held. But it was Vellithirai’s press meet that grabbed a few eye balls. More so Prakashraj’s statement about not regretting mocking star titles – Captain and Dhalapathy. He said he showed what is prevalent in the industry.

Cheran made a touching statement at the Raaman Thediya Seethai press meet by appealing to the media not to match make him with his heroines. “I have a family to go to,” he said.

Bharathiraja’s daughter Janani Aishwarya’s wedding engagement witnessed the who’s who of the industry.

Vishal’s brother Vikram Krishna walked the aisle with Shriya Reddy. Their wedding was attended by kingpins of the industry including Rajini and Maniratnam.



Rahman announced his plans for a music school with the screening of visuals of the school.

aving been under wraps since hitting the floors, stills of Ajith's Aegan and Vijay’s Kurvi have been officially released recently. Kuruvi stills look promisingly racy while Aegan Ajith sports a heavily bearded look.

US Consulate’s ban on a few South Indian artistes came as a shock to the industry and the incident brought to light the human trafficking scandal. Actor Flora Shiny was questioned in this regard and she maintained her innocence that it wasn’t her fault her makeup artist did not have proper papers.

Shriya planted one tight slap across the face of an over enthusiastic fanatic who tried to molest her at Tirupathy during her visit to the temple on Ugadi.

Although the IPL Chennai cricket team ‘Chennai Kings’ wear an international look with famous national and international players on the list, the IPL board decided to give it a regional flavor and roped in Vijay and Nayan as brand ambassadors. A promo video is already on air featuring the duo directed by Rajiv Menon.

amil cinema’s biggest losses of the year came in the form of Raguvaran’s untimely demise. Widely admired and loved by fans for his nonchalant villainy and the salt and pepper voice, Raghuvaran passed away this month leaving behind the legacy of a decade-old acting prowess demonstrated in many of the finest movies he was a part of. Raghuvaran leaves behind his divorced wife Rohini and a son.

For once, the stars outnumbered the spectators. They were seen thus in the protests held in support of the Hogenakkal water supply project that also raised voice against the violence unleashed over innocent Tamils in Karnataka. The protests also made headlines when Rajini bashed the miscreants in Karnataka for the atrocities. Few heads turned in surprise when Silambarasan and Nayan were seated next to each other – but only to check messages and fiddling with their mane.

Of more than a dozen movies that were released, Santosh Subramaniam and Yaaradi Nee Moghini won the hearts of family audiences. While Sandai is catching up among A, B, and C centers, Nepali, with an interesting plot, has released to average houses; so is Thozha. Vellithirai has received a lukewarm response and Kannum Kannum is showing signs of wearing out.

Balakumaran takes care of dialogues in Robot

In the recent development, Veteran writer Balakumaran has stepped into the Robot bandwagon.

Sudden death of writer Sujatha raised doubts with Rajini fans and on lookers about the fate of dialogues in Robot. Though Sujatha has finished his part in the dialogues, some fine tunings needed here and there. So, Shankar has sought the help of famous writer and novelist Balakumaran with whom he had already worked in Gentleman and Kadhalan.

Balakumaran immediately agreed to it since the film involves none other than Superstar. You all might aware that he has already worked with Superstar in the evergreen treat 'Baasha'.

Few days before Superstar held discussions with Balakumaran and Shankar in Raghavendra Mandapam regarding the Robot dialogues. Superstar is much happier over Balakumaran's bond again with him.

Rajini fans all over the globe would feel surely happy over Balakumaran's association with Robot team. Hope Robot becomes another Baasha ? both in dialogues and box-office records!!

Superstar Gets Sai Baba's blessings in Puttaparthi;

Superstar Rajinikanth was in Puttaparthi on Sunday to seek blessings of Satya Sai Baba at Prashanti Nilayam. Rajinikanth presented a bouquet to Sai Baba and sought the blessings during the morning gathering in Sai Kulwanth Auditorium in Prashanti Nilayam. He also attended the bhajan there till afternoon.

Rajini was clad in a white veshti and shirt.He left for Bangalore in the afternoon by car. Earlier on Saturday evening he arrived at Puttaparthi and stayed in Shanti Bhavan guest house.

This message isn't meant to ignite any

Dear Friends & Fans,

Please read this message of mine with extreme caution. This message isn't
meant to ignite any "regional fanatics" here - but I want you to
spend some moments and THINK. I want you all to start spreading a new
message around - a message that, we should NOT be distinguished by
the colour, religion or the state where we come from, but we should
be identified to the nation that we belong to - Be Indian and be
proud to be one!

Satyaraj and co., have flamed us with their fiery speech. This is not
going to be the last and we will be faced with such issues in the
future too.

In the last few days I have been watching and re-watching the video -
and I had felt very uneasy about it. I felt uneasy, not because what
Satyaraj and others talked about, BUT I felt uneasy that history is
been often misused to fit our present needs.

There are many states in India - and we all know who's facing more
issues in and around our country? Yes, it's Tamilians. Tamilnadu &
Karanataka is at loggerheads, Tamilnadu & Kerala has issues on Mullai
Periyar, Tamils has problems at our adjacent country (Name was
withheld, because the objective of this discussion is something else)
and Tamils have started another issue at Malaysia too.

The people from other states are not saints, but they are not
whipping so much of a problem, like how we do. There are many reasons
to this, but if you dig deep, you will find that - it's because of
our own people who are whipping the passion of being TAMIL. We tend
to think that we are "superior" to the rest and a false pride is been
instilled on us these days.

I was watching the - Tamil Pechu - program in Vijay TV. I am
surprised to see some of them raking up the - Anggavai & Sanggavai -
again. And one managed to claim that Rajini isn't a Tamilian! I don't
know how many of you managed to catch this.

I have a few questions for these so called "protectors" of tamilians
& tamil language!

1. Do you think MGR is a tamilian? His name is Marudur Gopalamenon
Ramachandran. He's a Malayalee! And yet, you call him as a - Pachhai
Tamilian - and he ruled Tamilnadu for many many years!

2. Do you think JJ is a tamilnadu person? She was born in Mysore as
Komalavalli. She's a kannada brahmin and yes she ruled TN very well
too.

3. Do you think Namitha is a tamilian? Our so called Tamil preachers
often found acting with her!

4. Do you think Pepsi, Coke, Fastfood, Jeans, Foreign cars, Pizza
are - Tamil kalaachaaram? Those who preach has non-tamil lifestyle!

5. Why do you whip the Tamil passion up and CRY when you are faced
with the same thing at Maharashtra?

6. Lord Ram, Krishna and many others are north indian born hindu
gods. Does the Tamil preachers dare to say that?

En enizha Tamizh Makkallae, we are in the midst of another new year.
I want you to spare some moments thinking about this. Tamil is a
beautiful language and it has a wonderful history. Likewise, every
other language and state has. We, as human, do not have any right to
hurt anyone through our act or language. Let's not spoil the
beautiful fabric because of the some ill driven passion. India is a
multi cultural country and let's not spoil it.

Vikram’s plan


April 17th is Vikram’s birthday. Each year for his birthday, the star does something special. Earlier it has been visits to an orphanage, to ashrams, to welfare organizations. This year, Vikram plans to visit his fans. In particular, his fan club in Ambatur, Chennai. The club is located in Vanagaram, LBR garden, and the meeting itself will be held at


3 pm in Sri Varu Venkatachalapathy Palace. Vikram has expressed his desire to be involved in welfare projects. His fans eagerly await the 17th, when they can meet their favourite star in person.

Kuruvi on April 16!

Looks like the Kuruvi team has gone back on the decision about the movie’s audio release. Earlier, it was decided to release the movie straight to the audio selling outlets. However, it is now learnt that a formal audio launch has been decided to be held by the producers on the 16th of April at the Little Flower Convent premises, Mount Road, Chennai. The event is expected to be attended by the who’s who of the industry and if credible sources are to be believed, Local Administration Minister M.K. Stalin will preside over the audio release. It is to be noted that Kuruvi is the debut production venture of Udayanidhi Stalin.

Directed by Dharani, the action/adventure will have Trisha playing Vijay’s lead lady. Vidyasagar scores for the movie that hits the screens in May 2008.

Media is responsible for separating Nayan from me”


The recently held protest meeting of the Kollywood fraternity in connection with the Hogenakkal issue had brought forth many interesting facts. Trisha and Nayanthara were flashed in the media along with the top honchos of the industry. Silambarasan sitting beside Nayan and not communicating with her was also the talk of the town. While discussing about Nayan, Trisha said that she and Nayan have remained close friends for a long a time and their friendship has been looked upon by the media with a strange outlook. She also added that it was media who is responsible for separating Nayan from her and also reuniting them. When Trisha bagged Kuruvi, it was media who had brought in an imaginary rift between them which evoked a hearty laugh. However being in the lime light, both the friends have mastered the art of ignoring such rumours and have remained good friends. She further added that she shares perfect camaraderie with Shriya also and when in town the threesome is sure to spend some quality time with each other.

Some Bollywood Poses