Chennai Box-Office & Cine Express

Thala Ajith's Asal Gets Rolling !

It has begun, at last! The shoot of Ultimate Star Ajith’s much-expected Asal, directed by Saran, has started in Malaysia. During this schedule, which will last for month, scenes involving Ajith, Sameera Reddy, Bhavana and Prabhu will be shot. As per the script written by Yugi Sethu and Saran, a major portion of the film is set in Malaysia. According to our sources, the film is about a guy from the slums of Chennai who becomes a don and manages his empire from a foreign land. His enemies find it difficult to annihilate him as he is continuously on the run, hopping across continents. Ninety-five per cent of the story happens overseas and Asal’s next schedule is likely to be shot in Europe. Interestingly, this film is touted to be thala’s costliest film till date.

Has Trisha opted out of Aadukalam ?

Is Trisha slowly losing interest in Kollywood? Ever since she signed up Priyadarsan’s Khatta Meeta with Akshay Kumar, the buzz is she is putting Tamil films on the backburner. As of now, she has two live projects in Tamil — Aadukalam with Dhanush, directed by Vetrimaran and Gautham Menon’s Vinnaithandi Varuvaya, in which she is paired with Silambarassan. Her Gautham Menon project with newcomers, Chennayil Oru Mazhaikalam, has been shelved for all practical purposes. Now, the latest in the grapevine is that the makers of Aadukalam and Trisha are trying to work out a settlement, by which she will be free to walk out of the film. Recently, the makers of the film did not use her call sheet and the actress was forced to cool her heels at a Madurai hotel doing nothing for four days, while other scenes were canned! This upset her as she thought they were trying to be one up on her.However, sources close to the unit claim that Trisha has become “too big for her boots ever since she signed up the Akshay Kumar project.” She was not too keen to do a “realistic film in the heat and dust of Madurai”, and the film may take a long time to be completed, which will upset her carefully laid out Bollywood plans.The actress is currently shooting in Sydney with Gopichand for a Telugu film and from there, she will head to New York to complete the last schedule of Gautham Menon’s Vinnaithandi Varuvaya with her “good friend” Simbu. After she finishes her New York assignment, the pretty actress is to fly to Europe for a monthlong schedule of Namo Venkatesa opposite her lucky Aadavari Mataluku Ardhale Verule hero Venkatesh in Telugu. She is reported to have been paid a bomb for the film, which in all probability will be her last Telugu release.From October, Trisha is likely to relocate herself to Mumbai as she has given bulk dates to Priyadarsan. The buzz is that the actress is going for a total make over to join the Bollywood race and will be appointing a leading marketing agency to look after her career in films and endorsements. — where she was shooting a song with Suriya for his KS Ravikumar directed Aadhavan — to the hot and sultry Dubai. Nayan had a prior commitment as she had a dinner appointment at her brother’s place, where Prabhu Dheva was being introduced to the family. The next day, newspapers in Dubai flashed the picture and story of the couple visiting upmarket restaurants and shopping at designer stores at malls. They were mobbed there and people were seen clicking photographs on their mobile phones. We hear that the duo had to leave as the crowd became uncontrollable. Meanwhile, it was Nayan (who was hooked on to the Internet) who first told Prabhu that MJ had passed away!

Nayanthara flew from Iceland

Last week, Nayanthara flew from Iceland — where she was shooting a song with Suriya for his KS Ravikumar directed Aadhavan — to the hot and sultry Dubai. Nayan had a prior commitment as she had a dinner appointment at her brother’s place, where Prabhu Dheva was being introduced to the family. The next day, newspapers in Dubai flashed the picture and story of the couple visiting upmarket restaurants and shopping at designer stores at malls. They were mobbed there and people were seen clicking photographs on their mobile phones. We hear that the duo had to leave as the crowd became uncontrollable. Meanwhile, it was Nayan (who was hooked on to the Internet) who first told Prabhu that MJ had passed away!

JUNE26 :: Nadodigal Film has taken a Lukewarm opening

Soundarya Rajinikanth, busy with Sultan – The Warrior

She might have grown up watching Rajini films just like any other normal Tamil cinema fan, but when an opportunity came knocking to actually make a movie with him in the lead role, she immediately chose animation! “Pictures and images have always attracted me,” says Soundarya Rajinikanth, who is giving the final touches to her Sultan – The Warrior, “That’s why animation was the first choice when my dad gave me a go-ahead sign.”When she was asked to speak on her favourite topic at the Times Avenues, she was more than ready for it. “There’s a huge future for animation in India,” she says, “Apart from the creative line, there’s almost 10 times more opportunities on the technical side.”
Keeping that in mind, this pretty filmmaker is planning to launch a new initiative — she calls it the School of Thoughts. “It will create a platform to people who have ideas,” she states. Prod her on this and she’s not willing to reveal more. “There’ll be an official announcement soon,” is all she’ll say.Though her film is quite big on the technical front, Sultan will have all the essential ingredients of a typical Rajinikanth film. So, there’s style too? “Of course,” she laughs, “There’s action, drama, revenge and love… it’s a commercial film. I’m a commercial person.”That’s one quality driving her to market the film aggressively. But, despite a lot of marketing, animation movies made in India haven’t really raked in a lot of moolah. How does she think will Sultan fare in that context? “Quality is the key in animation movies,” she says, “If there’s no finesse, you’ve lost your audience.”Audience is surely an important factor that Soundarya will be considering, as it’s the fans of the superstar who shape the success of the film. “I’m sure Sultan will be path-breaking and we’re working towards it,” she says, “I love to take up challenges and triumph.”So, what’s Rajinikanth as a dad? What are their dinner table conversations like? “Ah, we discuss everything under the sun. From politics to general gossip, we chat about everything!” Does he ever talk about Sultan competing with his upcoming Endhiran? “No way,” she states, “They are both different films. He thinks of them as two prestigious projects. The work to be put in them is the same.”Soundarya is very interested in the stories and anecdotes that her father narrates to explain human nature. “Appa is hugely into story-telling,” she says, “You know, he has this manner of narrating a lot of little stories. I love listening to them.”

Namitha has gone to extent of E-mailing her fans

This must be innovative promotion at its peak! For her next film Indira Vizha (IV), Namitha has gone to the extent of e-mailing her fans! Yes, the IV team has adopted a new technique to promote their film that is scheduled to release on July 10.We understand that the actress sent 20 lakh mailers, which contained stills and interesting tidbits about the film. IV has Srikanth playing the lead role. According to a press release, Namitha has addressed her fans in her unique ‘tanglish’ style. Apparently, the sultry siren is also responding to some of the mail. So, if you get an e- mail from Namitha soon, don’t be surprised!

Shilpa Shetty’s retail therapy

Shilpa Shetty may be busy doing a million things, but the actress always manages to find time for doing loads of shopping for her new home. In fact, we got to know that when the actress was taking a break in London recently, she spent a lot of time shopping. And, giving her company was mom Sunanda. A friend says, “Shilpa loves to shop. She also likes to explore stores that sell unique things. Her mother has great taste in artifacts and antiques. She helped Shilpa pick up things for her new house.” Now we don’t know if they ran a huge bill, but then retail therapy is a great stress buster, isn’t it?

Murugadoss's (Universal) dreams

Guess who Murugadoss is dreaming about these days? If you think it’s hot and sizzling babes, you’re completely off track! It’s none other than Ulaga Nayagan, Kamal Haasan. The director disclosed this at a recent awards show where he had the honour of presenting an award to the actor of his dreams. “In fact, I’ve had dreams of telling Kamal sir that I always wanted to talk to him,” revealed the director, much to the amusement of the audience. And Kamal, the gentleman he is, on receiving the award, told the director that he can very well meet him in person, if he ever felt the need to talk to him. So, do we see the Ghajini director working with him in a film soon? Will it be a tussle between SRK and KH to star in his film?! Ah, that’s something we would love to wait and watch..!

Happy birthday Illayathalapathy Dr.Vijay

Today, Ilayathalapathy Vijay celebrates his 35th birthday. The star, who has been in the industry for the last 17 years, has come up the hard way by doing mass films which have put him on the same pedestal as veteran superstars of the industry. Vijay’s films have an impressive reach across the globe as they target the man on the streets. And though critics lambast his films calling them “mindless formulaic potboilers”, Vijay is nonchalant as he feels the working class and the youth comprise a major chunk of his audience. So, when Gautham Menon wanted to do “a different kind of Vijay film”, the actor refused to experiment. Like Superstar Rajinikanth, he too believes that it is not worth tinkering with his mass hero image which has worked wonders for him. Of the 48 films Vijay has done, five have been blockbusters, seven have been super hits and 14 have proved to be safe for producers and distributors. Some of his recent films may not have been commercially as successful as his earlier films because they were sold at a price higher than what the market could take. It is the bane of all big stars that with each hit, the price tag of their films go up in the trade and that has a cascading effect.The grapevine was abuzz that like all mass heroes in Tamil cinema, Vijay too was toying with the idea of entering state politics. When the star held discussions with his fans’ associations, news spread that he would start his political party on his birthday, before the next assembly elections. However, the actor, in an interview, said, “Yes, I was serious about plunging into politics. I have about 35,000 fan clubs spread across Tamil Nadu who are doing social work and I thought by joining politics I could do more for the common man. But now, I’m putting such plans on the hold and concentrating more on my films.”In his birthday message to fans this year, the star has announced that he will be inaugurating two computer centres that will offer computer education for free. He has also urged his fans to follow in his footsteps.The star, who is a big fan of MGR, is also trying to complete his 49th film, Vettaikaran,a typical Vijay action entertainer in which Anushka plays his lady love. Stills from the film, with Vijay dressed in cowboy attire and riding a white horse, were given to his fans to enable them to make posters for his birthday celebrations.The title was used by MGR for one of his films in which he wore a similar cowboy attire and was on a white horse. And the big buzz is that Vijay’s prestigious 50th film will be Urimai Kural,another title inspired by an old MGR film!