Southscope march2013 by Southscope and Ritz Magazine

MARCH 2013

VOL 04 | ISSUE 06

“the concept of superstardom should not exist in cinema”

speaks his mind

read this first: what south india’s biggest stars have said exclusively to southscope over the years!

“my daughter recognises my voice now” new daddy

karthi sivakumar gushes

“big stars ask a lot of questions” - director

venkat prabhu

www.facebook.com/bootzindia

from the editor...

Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. Walking down memory lane, recounting interesting experiences, and reflecting upon how incidents in the past have impacted us, is a wholly satisfying and fulfilling journey. This month, Southscope takes you on one such experience that we promise, will thoroughly delight you. Go straight to our compilation of memorable things many of South Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest celebrities have told us. We ourselves were surprised at how candidly these stars have opened up to us exclusively over the years. Leaf through their quotes and you are bound to be excited too! We thank all the stars for the trust they have reposed in us over the years by sharing their loftiest ambitions, biggest concerns, wildest dreams and most intimate secrets with Southscope. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve also packed quite a punch in this issue, courtesy a fascinating conversation with our star of the month Prithviraj. Overall, this edition is guaranteed to be a great read. Enjoy!

Aruna R Krishnan Managing Editor

Managing Editor Aruna R Krishnan

Founder & Advisor Allu Sirish

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CAMEO This month, we share the best of the repertoire of quotable quotes from stars that we have collected over the years! Here’s what caught the attention of our Roving Eye

12 ~ 27

Malayalam Emmanuel ahoy!

Kannada What’s happening with Bulbul? Audio launches, movie launches, previews – get your monthly ﬁx of ﬁlm events!

Telugu Balupu is making waves already

Tamil Sample the Biriyani as it’s getting cooked

Nandini Reddy And.... Action!

Venkat Prabhu “Big stars ask a lot of questions”

Shivraj Kumar Practice makes perfect

Karthi “My daughter actually recognises my voice now”

84 86 88 90

42 46 48 50

Malayalam Ladies and Gentlemen, check out Ladies and Gentleman

Kannada Check out Loosegalu

FASHION

Telugu

BRIGADE Find out which stars had everyone’s jaws dropping – and for what reasons, too

What’s news with Greeku Veerudu?

Tamil Endrendrum Punnagai gets us talking

92 94 96 98

SPECIAL FEATURE: PRODUCERS

Walking down the path of nostalgia with Producer S Thanu, we stroll through the sands of time in Tamil cinema

PREVIEW

Prithviraj

Dreamum Wakeupum: Prithviraj on living life on his own terms

HERE IS A CRISP ACCOUNT OF A FEW WHISPERS ON THE GRAPEVINE THAT WE HEARD

on a Roll, MUch? Aindrita Ray is on cloud nine. Her latest movie Rajani Kantha, opposite Duniya Vijay, opened to an amazing response. The on-screen duo already had two blockbusters to their credit and Rajani Kantha could well be the third. The actress who was suffering from a bout of poor health last year, seems to have bounced back. Recently, she took up another big budget project – Bajarangi – opposite Shivarajkumar. Should we say that Aindrita is on a roll?

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

Dancing the Spanish tango Where were Allu Arjun and Junior NTR last month? In a Mediterranean summer resort in Spain! Both superstars were hanging out in Spain exploring the Iberian nation. Of course, they were not there on a pleasure trip but shooting for their respective Telugu movies. While Bunny was with the Iddarammayilatho team, NTR Jr. was with the Baadshah production unit. Both movies are being produced by Bandla Ganesh. Iddarammayilatho is being directed by Puri Jagannadh while Baadshah is directed by Srinu Vytla. Ganesh has roped in both the hit filmmakers and top stars for his twin projects. What a rendezvous point!

Ready for another hit? Vishnu Manchu has commenced shooting for his next untitled movie directed by Veeru Potla. The movie went on the floors at the hilltop temple town of Tirumala. Vishnu commenced shooting secretly, only to be exposed by the hundreds of devotees. Vishnu earned a lucky break last year when his home production Dhenikaina Ready became a hit. Until then, Vishnu was going through a tough time. Since 2007, he had acted in three films, and they sank at the BO. Vishnu even became part of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL). The success of Dhenikaina Ready it seems, prompted director Veeru Potla to approach Vishnu with his script.

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

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SINCE 1945 Shruti Haasan has carved quite a niche for herself, earning an identity that falls well outside her father’s shadow, through her work. Of her repertoire, it appears that her stint in Telugu cinema seems to be going great guns – as her runaway hit in 2012, Gabbar Singh opposite Pawan Kalyan, proved. Harish Shankar, the director of Gabbar Singh, has reportedly asked Shruti to act in his next film starring Junior NTR, to which it is believed that Shruti responded saying that she had a full diary already. Harish was persistent, and has been single-minded in his decision to cast Shruti, who he called his lucky charm. Well, after that his Lady Luck has said yes.

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MadhaVan iS coMing back! So it appears that Madhavan’s sabbatical from Tamil cinema might draw to an end, what with news doing the rounds that he is all set to make a comeback in a film by Sundar C. It is believed that the film is also likely to have Khushboo in a significant role. It appears that this may be an action flick – although nothing stands confirmed until such time that Sundar C’s present project, Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, is done.

pooJa gandhi JUMpS Ship Pooja Gandhi is jumping ship again! The actress who is pursuing a career in politics recently quit the Janata Dal (Secular) to join the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP). The latest news is that Pooja will bid goodbye to the KJP and join the BSR Congress! Incidentally the BSR Congress already has a star, veteran actress Rakshita Prem, on board. Will BSR Congress offer any luck to Pooja? Let us wait and watch as elections to the Karnataka Assembly are just two months away!

chennai chaRMeR foR chennai eXpReSS? News has it that Priyamani is doing an item number in Shah Rukh Khan’s upcoming film, Chennai Express. The film seems to have had a bunch of options open for its item number – Nayanthara was approached first, but had turned it down, and Priyamani was the next in line. Will the award-winning actress shine in her new avatar?

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

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Rana Daggubati does not fail to surprise. The handsome actor has always experimented with different roles in his films so far. Now, Rana will play the role of a prince in the 3-D film Rani Rudrama Devi, a historical movie, which has Anushka Shetty playing the role of the powerful princess of the Kakatiya dynasty. Tollywood was eagerly waiting to see who would bag the coveted role of Yuvaraja Chalukya Veerabhadra, the Eastern Chalukya prince of Nidadavolu. Veerabhadra was married to Rani Rudrama Devi. The filmmakers have their own reasons for selecting Rana. As an outstanding queen (1259 to 1289 AD), Rani Rudrama Devi is still remembered and revered in Andhra Pradesh. So, they had to ensure that the role of Veerabhadra had an important actor. Besides, hunky Rana has the height advantage over Anushka!

Mohanlal to lead in JoShiy’S kaShMiR Mohanlal and veteran director Joshiy had a very successful outing a few months back with Run Babby Run, a venture that prompted them to join hands for another film shortly afterwards. Thus happened Lokpal, which however didn’t work out. But that doesn’t seem to deter them for they are planning another venture. Mohanlal is playing the lead in Joshiy’s forthcoming Kashmir, which will be produced by Subair. To be scripted by the duo of Sibi K Mathew and Udayakrishna, Kashmir will also have Biju Menon doing a key role. Though the rest of the cast is yet to be confirmed, it’s learnt that it would comprise of a very impressive array of popular stars. So, what’s Kashmir going to be about? Don’t forget, Joshiy had delivered a mega hit years back with Kashmir as the backdrop and the film, Nair Saab, is still popular with Malayali film-lovers. So is the team gearing up for another mega-hit? Let’s hope so! 22

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Rodeo Drive and Century, the Swiss luxury watchmaker known for their exquisite timepieces recently announced the global launch of the Century Horological Limited Edition Lord Venkateswara masterpiece that will make time tracking a divine experience in itself! Rodeo Drive, India’s premier boutique for luxury Swiss watches, world-class writing instruments and other leather accessories, has the exclusive worldwide rights to sell this truly classic wristwatch. Classy, elegant and timeless, the masterpiece reflects luxury and perfection with the image of Lord Venkateswara engraved by hand and studded with magnificent rubies and emeralds on a white dial. Truly something that global Indians will enjoy, the limited edition collection is a reflection of the quintessential well-heeled Indian’s refined taste, sophisticated style and of course, ardent devotion to Lord Balaji. The impressively created lugs, case back and the crown of the wristwatch are finely handcrafted in 18-carat red gold, with an image of the Vimanam engraved in gold in the rear. The Swiss self-winding movement is COSC chronometer certified and guarantees great precision and reliability. Century watches have the most intricate sapphire cases in the world. Exceptionally light, it is a quality appreciated for its comfort on the wrist, day in and day out. The extreme durability and purity of the Century Sapphire ensures the sublime beauty of the watch will endure, unalterable, for generations to come, retaining its original luminosity, clarity and density of colour. The case of the watch is scratch-resistant and water resistant material till a depth of 100 metres. The 12 shimmering facets are cut and polished entirely by hand. Mounted on a choice of alligator leather strap with folding buckle in 18 carat red gold, or an 18-carat red gold bracelet, each watch is individually numbered in a limited series of 333, to turn it into a truly exceptional collector’s item. Every piece of the limited edition watch sold globally will see a certain percentage of the sale proceeds going to the Balaji Institute of Surgery, Research and Rehabilitation for the Disabled (BIRRD), which is Asia’s largest charitable orthopaedic hospital in Tirupati run by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam.

March 2013 | Southscope

Cricketing celebrities With international test matches unfolding and the IPL matches waiting just round the corner, cricket still seems to grip the masses in India. This time, with a celebrity twist!

If the IPL matches redefined the way India looked at cricket, the Celebrity Cricket League took it to an all new level. Adrenaline rushes as the nail-biting finishes pile on, and bursts of cheers as the all new avatars of superstars in the film industry are just about the beginning of the tremendously joyful exposition that the Celebrity Cricket League has come to be. The third season of the matches among the teams as part of the Celebrity Cricket League set the stadia ablaze. With two new teams this year, Veer Marathi representing the Marathi film industry and Bhojpuri Dabbangs representing the Bhojpuri film industry, this season was definitely high on the star quotient. The teams in the league besides the two additions included Telugu Warriors headed by Daggubati Venkatesh, the Bengal Tigers headed by Jeet, the Chennai Rhinos headed by Vishal, the Kerala Strikers headed by Mohan Lal, the Karnataka Bulldozers headed by Sudeep and the Mumbai Heroes headed by Suniel Shetty.

The opening ceremony took place on February 9, 2013. The matches opened to a star-studded beginning, while each match had the audiences enthralled.

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March 2013 | Southscope

Beginning their account with style, the Bhojpuri Dabbangs took on the Chennai Rhinos, winning their first match by five wickets. Manoj Tiwari’s captaincy sure paid off. With the Kerala Strikers, Telugu Warriors and Karnataka Bulldozers winning clean sweeps in their opening matches, the Mumbai Heroes, Bengal Tigers and Veer Marathis were relegated to the losing slot with the Chennai Rhinos. In a face-off between the victors Bhojpuri Dabbangs and the Kerala Strikers, the former won in style. Sadly, the Karnataka Bulldozers and the Chennai Rhinos couldn’t face-off what with the rain playing spoilsport. The Veer Marathis were not keen on staying in the losing slot, as they came back in style against the Bengal Tigers, and the Telugu Warriors remained strong for quite some time. Genelia D’Souza was spotted on the stands, cheering her husband on, while Riya Sen was all for Bengaluru going places. Ramcharan’s debut in this season had the crowds going ballistic, while Venkatesh’s charming presence did not dim one bit. Sadly, Sonu Sood wound up with a set of multiple fractures in his leg, a setback that might cost him heavily on the work front as well. Leading ladies Bipasha Basu, Kajal Aggarwal, Priyamani and Madhuri Bhattacharya were the brand ambassadors for this season. While the leading men sweated it out on the pitch, these ladies turned up the hotness quotient! 26

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Audiences were in a frenzy all through, as their favourite stars were not just making waves in the movie theatres, they were playing with élan on the twenty-two yard-long cricket pitch. Peppered with some heretofore hidden talents, sweet shows of camaraderie and brotherhood, and the most unusual of stunts that were never prepared for, the matched made for a fantastic source of entertainment. With a points table that rang more than a cash register would, and some spontaneous never-seen-before action, the Celebrity Cricket League went down as an event that will be eagerly awaited each year!

March 2013 | Southscope

feBruarY

firsTs

Here’s what happened all through the shortest month of the year!

Cheers to a new beginning!

Right from the back-bencher’s diary Madhura Sreedhar’s forthcoming film, Backbench Student had its audio launch at Rock Heights, in Madhapur, Hyderabad. The film’s cast and crew was seen in full attendance for the glitzy affair along with other T-town personalities like Rana Daggubati, Dasarath, Kona Venkat and Sundeep Kishan among others. Sunil Kashyap has scored the music for the album, which also has the remix version of yesteryear super hit number Jagada Jagada from Geethanjali. The remixed number was sung by Tamil actor STR. Backbench Student has Mahat Raghavendra, Piaa Bajpai and Archana Kavi in the lead roles.

The music launch of Sunil’s new film Mr Pellikoduku, happened at the Annapurna Seven Acres Studios. The film has Sunil playing the role of an NRI who comes to India to meet his prospective bride, and is a remake of the Kangana Ranaut-Madhavan starrer in Hindi, Tanu Weds Manu. While Devi Prasad has directed the Telugu version, NV Prasad and Paras Jain have produced the remake. SA Rajkumar has scored the music, and the guests of the evening included Naga Chaitanya and Tamannaah.

And the “Roopam” was unveiled! Meeting the Press

Kamal Haasan overcame obstacles to ensure a fantastic opening for his magnum opus Vishwaroopam. The audience have in turn responded warmly to the legendary star by ensuring the success of the film.

Nagarjuna was his usual handsome and dashing self at the press meet in connection with his new film Greeku Veerudu, at the Annapurna Seven Acres Studios in Hyderabad.

A la audio!

Jabardasth, the Siddharth-and-Samantha starrer had its music launch at Annapurna Seven Acres Studios. Nandini Reddy’s second directorial venture, Jabardasth has some energising music indeed, composed by Thaman. The event was attended by V V Vinayak, Sunil, Gunnam Gangaraju and Rana, along with the cast and crew, that included Nandini Reddy, Bellamkonda Suresh, Thaman, Siddarth, Srihari, Samantha, Kona Venkat, Mahendra Babu, Veligonda Srinivas, Lakshmi Bhoopal, Rama Jogaiah Sastri and Sreshta. VV Vinayak launched the music and presented the copies to Sunil and Srihari. 28

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Launching a new venture

Leading Telugu producer Bellamkonda Suresh’s son Bellamkonda Srinivas, is now making his debut as a hero in VV Vinayak’s movie. The film was launched at Annapurna studios in Hyderabad. The event was attended by Victory Venkatesh, Dasari Narayana Rao, K Raghavendra Rao, Gopichand, Ramesh Prasad, Chota K. Naidu, Sunil, Siddharth, Sai, Tammareddy Bharadwaja, Bellamkonda Ganesh Babu, Suresh Kondeti, Raghava Lawrence, Posani Krishna Murali, Kona Venkat, Raja Ravindra, Srihari, Akula Siva, K Atchi Reddy, and Ramesh Puppala among others. The story for the movie has been written by Aakula Siva, and the music has been composed by Devi Sri Prasad.

March 2013 | Southscope

Keeping track of dates with style! The BOOTZ Southscope All Star Calendar was launched with a grand celebrity unveiling, in association with our television partner Jaya TV. With many celebrities from the South Indian film fraternity coming together to cheer Southscopeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s smashing calendar featuring a stunning selection of the most soughtafter stars, event held at at Courtyard by Marriott was indeed memorable!

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March 2013 | Southscope

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The concept of superstardom should cease to exist in cinema.â&#x20AC;?

Photographer: Shaheen Thaha Styling: Praveen Varma Hair Munna Make Up Pramod 32

Prithviraj is busy these days. The young, dashing actorproducer, the younger son of late actor Sukumaran and actress Mallika Sukumaran and the younger brother of the very versatile Indrajith, is now a pan Indian actor. (He himself doesn’t like the ‘star’ tag!). Having made his debut in Bollywood with Aiyyaa, Prithviraj is now shuttling between Mumbai and Kerala. Here’s Prithviraj Sukumaran unplugged, in conversation with Unni R Nair

“I DIDN’T CARE TWO HOOTS ABOUT THE FACULTY”

Tell us about your childhood and your younger years. My childhood was very normal. My brother and I were brought up quite unaware of our father’s public image or stardom. My father was also an academician – he was an English professor before he became an actor. I think all through his life he was more of an academician than an actor. The both of us were brought up like an academician’s children rather than an actor’s children. Being born to a teacher and a mother coming from a very illustrious family with literary figures like Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, was a very good thing. Life took a turn when I joined the Sainik School, which was in my sixth grade. It exposed me to a very different world. I think it was a great decision on my father’s side and also a pretty good choice on my part to get into that school. The five years I spent there really cultivated my personality. Halfway through my tenth grade, my dad passed away. I had to shift schools and join Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It was an extremely good institution too, and gave me a lot of exposure. A lot of my extra-curricular talent came to the forefront because of that school. Initially I didn’t want to move as I really was beginning to enjoy being a part of the whole Sainik fraternity. Unfortunately you cannot be a day scholar in that school; you can only be a boarding student. By the time my dad passed away my brother was already in a hostel, in Tamil Nadu, doing his engineering. My mother would have had to be alone at home. So I shifted school and then after my twelfth grade, I didn’t have to face the hassles of entrance examinations because I didn’t want to be an engineer or a doctor. I decided to go to Australia for further studies. I didn’t care two hoots about the faculty – so I went and pursued a degree in Information Technology. The whole idea of going to a different country and living life on your own terms, pursuing an academic career seemed very adventurous to me. One summer vacation when I came back home Ranjith offered me Nandanam and my acting career began. That’s my life, in a nutshell! 34

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Prithviraj Sukumaran – the name has virtually evolved into a brand. Did you see that coming? No, I never saw that coming! I’ve never made an effort from my side to be anything other than the actor that I am. I’ve not really made a conscious move to become a brand or be associated with any sort of an image. I’ve just always been myself. People who know me from the time before I was an actor will tell you that I’ve always been like this. The way I speak, the way I use words, my attitude – whether good or bad, they all are traits that have been with me for a long, long time. I’ve changed nothing about myself because I have become an actor. I’ve been led to believe that I should have been more ‘diplomatic’. If being myself leads me to be perceived in a certain way, then I guess I’d have to live with it, because I can’t change the person that I am.

What have your biggest regrets in life, been? Only one: the fact that my dad is not around to see my success. I know that more than anybody else, he would have enjoyed and celebrated my success the most. I would give anything to sit down and have a drink with my dad and discuss my success with him.

As a part of Malayalam, Tamil and now Hindi cinema, where do you think Malayalam cinema is lacking? Why is it a step behind all the time? As for where it is lacking, I think it is in filmmakers and writers and also actors from today’s generation. Till about five years back, if you’d have to make a list of the top-ten directors of Malayalam, I don’t know how many people below forty would have featured in that list. I think that was a problem. There wasn’t anybody from the current scene who were coming forward and making cinema that March 2013 | Southscope

“I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THIS WHOLE TREND OF A PROJECT BEING DESIGNED AROUND ONE ACTOR JUST BECAUSE HE IS A SUPERSTAR IS REALLY NOT VERY HEALTHY.” takes shape from the current scheme of things. All through history if you see, the greatest of films have taken shape or taken inspiration from what was then contemporary society. They were done by people who belonged to that society. What is a good trend over the recent few years is that lots of youngsters have come forward and there is a sense of adventure with Malayalam cinema right now. People are willing to try different things. A lot of films, including films like Ayaalum Njaanum Thammil or Indian Rupee going on to become commercial successes give actors like me a lot of courage to try new things. I can assure you that I am trying a few things this year that I’d say are pretty new. Malayalam cinema has never been behind. It is just one evolutionary cycle of aesthetics and at the end of the day we need to accept the fact that the kind of cinema that’s being made will always be decided by the kind of cinema that’s being seen. There is an aesthetic value in terms of how we see cinema and how we perceive the medium – and now that is changing. Because the aesthetics are changing, there’s a demand for more meaningful cinema. That’s great - I think more than anybody else, that’s great for actors. We get to try different things.

Seventy ﬁlms and counting in Malayalam, and yet you have said that you are against Stardom in the Malayalam industry. Why? I am against stardom. I’ve been one of the first few, probably the first guy to say it on television. The so-called concept of superstardom 36

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

should cease to exist in cinema. I really don’t think cinema can be made the way it should be made if everything about a film is designed around one actor. Even in my case, when a producer gets my dates or I decide to work with a director and we go in and decide that a certain date will be the set aside to begin shooting, from that moment, everything revolves around me. So everything else in the film is adjusted to suit my dates. Everything revolves around just one person. Unfortunately that is not the way cinema should be made. I really think that there should be multiple choices for any film at any given point of time. I know that in my career, I have made filmmakers wait for five or six years to eventually do a film. That is not intentional. Unfortunately they would have come to me and I would have said ‘yes’ to that script; and that would have been the nth script that I would have said ‘yes’ to. I would have to finish my prior commitments and get to that film. A classic example is Ayaalum Njaanum Thammil. I had listened to the story eight years back. Eventually when the project took place, and my daterelated complications and Lal Jose’s availability all fell into place, it happened last year. If there were multiple choices, the film would have happened long back. It would have been a great loss for me, but if you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, I really think that’s the way it should be. I strongly believe that this whole trend of a project being designed around one actor just because he is a superstar is not very healthy.

“I HAVE MADE FILMMAKERS WAIT FOR FIVE OR SIX YEARS TO EVENTUALLY DO A FILM” 37

“IF RANI MUKHERJEE HAD RECOMMENDED ME, WOULD I NEED TO BE GIVING THE AUDITION IN THE FIRST PLACE?”

Why the foray into Bollywood when your career down South is going great guns?

“I AM GOING TO REALLY MAKE AN EFFORT TO MAKE SURE THAT MY BODY IS NOT MY USP” 38

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

It was not a foray into Bollywood. I was shooting for a Malayalam film. Anurag Kashyap talked to me and asked me to look at his script. I agreed. They came and discussed the script with me and I really enjoyed listening to it. Some might have liked Aiyyaa, some might have hated Aiyyaa. But I can assure you nobody ignored it. You can’t tell me that it’s a run-of-the-mill story. I was taken aback listening to something like that; and I was even more taken aback by the fact that someone like Rani Mukherjee and Anurag Kashyap decided to back it. To me, it was just a very natural progression. As an actor who has done some 75 to 80 films, when you listen to something as new as that, you’re tempted to do it. I have always said that I would have done Aiyyaa even if it came to me in Malayalam, and I still maintain it. The film didn’t work and I am okay with that. It was a genuine experiment. I didn’t look at it as a chance to get into Bollywood. At the risk of sounding immodest, I’d like to say that if I wanted to do a Hindi film, I’d have done one long back; because Aiyyaa is not the first script that I listened to, in Hindi. But it’s the first script that really impacted me, making me feel that it was not something I’ve heard of before. It is really not very tough to do a film in Hindi. For someone who is desperate to be in Bollywood, it is not very tough. There are thousands of films being made in Hindi. They can always be part of some film there. It’s not about being in Bollywood, it’s about doing good cinema. At the end of the day, I should be happy about the fact that regardless of how Aiyyaa has fared, people have noticed me and have realised that I am an actor with a repertoire of work down south. I am now finishing my second Hindi film and I’m already taking up a third film. It is great to be part of a bigger game. It is a fact that when you do a Hindi film, more people see your work than they would notice a Malayalam film or a regional film.

Did you not ﬁnd the movie to be racial proﬁling in action? Rani Mukherjee actually says a line that translates to mean, “I don’t like white-skinned people, but only black-skinned people.” Did you not think that this would insinuate the continued perpetration of an unacceptable, stereotypical racist slur? Rani Mukherjee says, “Mujhe gore log nahi, kale log pasand hai’, which means, ‘I don’t like fair people, I like dark people’. Ever since a woman’s fantasy about a man has been put down on print, right from Shakespeare to Hemingway to Mills and Boon and James Hadley Chase, hasn’t the ideal, good-looking man always been ‘tall, dark and handsome’? I’ve really not heard anybody describe a good-looking man as ‘tall, fair and handsome’. It’s just a shoot-out from that. So, I just don’t know why it has to take a racial undertone just because Rani Mukherjee says it in Hindi in a film.

Where does Aiyyaa put you, now, in the Bollywood scene? As I said, I just looked at the one film. I didn’t even know if I was going to do a second film in Hindi. People noticed me and a production house like Yash Raj Films, even before Aiyyaa released, showed enough confidence in me to cast me as a lead in one of their films. I think obviously they must have found me to be someone with a lot of potential. Otherwise they wouldn’t be casting me in a film. In terms of where I am in Bollywood, I really don’t know. I am listening to more scripts. There are a few people who seem to be interested in working with me. I am just hoping to do more films and be part of meaningful cinema in Bollywood. I just enjoy myself, that’s my priority. What I really don’t want to be at this stage of my career is to land up on a film set and then realise that I am doing something that I’d rather not be doing. That has happened to me before and that’s understandable to be happening to someone who’s nearly 5 or 6 films old. As long as I enjoy doing a film or enjoy shooting a film, I am now beyond caring how it’s going to do at the box office and what it is going to do for me as an actor. I just want to really enjoy doing what I am doing.

So tell us – did Rani Mukherjee catalyse your part in the ﬁlm? Did she put in a word, as gossip has it? I am nearly 80 films old and Aurangzeb is the first film in my career that I had auditioned for. It was very sweet of Yash Raj Productions. Their casting director Ms. Shanu Sharma called me up one day. She had met me on the sets of Aiyyaa. In fact the Aiyyaa song “Aga bai...” was shot in a floor in Yash Raj studios. During the shoot the casting director had come to say hello to Rani, as they were friends for a long time. That’s when Shanu Sharma saw me, introduced herself, and inquired about me. A couple of weeks later she gave me a call and told me that Yash Raj was doing a film and they were in the process of casting. She asked me if I would be interested in auditioning for a role. I agreed. I went to Mumbai and auditioned for the role. There was a screen-test. It took a whole week for Mr. Aditya Chopra to see all the auditions that they had shot. He gave me the role because my audition was the best. If Rani Mukherjee had recommended me, would I need to be giving the audition in the first place?

Aiyyaa saw you go topless with six-pack abs. Will we see more skin in your movies, now? I am going to really make an effort to make sure that my body is not my USP. The fact is that I’ve been blessed with a good physique. That I’ve put in lot of hard work to hone that physique is one thing. But I really don’t want to be someone who is known as an actor with a ‘body’! I strongly believe that as an actor I am beyond that. With Aiyyaa, it was very new for me. That kind of demand has never

March 2013 | Southscope

“IT’S NOT ABOUT BEING IN BOLLYWOOD, IT’S ABOUT DOING GOOD CINEMA.”

For that I did my thinking. I spent a few days with a painter from Pune – Debu Barve. Not that I became a painter in two weeks, I just wanted to know how these people handle easels and paints and wax and all that.

I didn’t do the film to get more fans or to lose any fans. I did the film because I thought it was a very original kind of film. It’s not the first time in my career that a film that I thought was very original, very new ended up not doing well. So, that’s okay. As I said, as long as I have enjoyed doing it, I am okay with it. With Aiyyaa I really enjoyed doing the film.

That would have happened a couple of years back. But fortunately or unfortunately, I have been quite busy as an actor. It will be a very selfish decision on my part to go out and direct right now. I need to take at least four to six months of time off my acting career. I don’t know how fair that would be when there are so many people waiting for me to join their films. Going behind the camera has always been my idea about cinema. My first interest about cinema was about filmmaking. But destiny landed me in front of the camera; and acting is as good a method as anything else to learn filmmaking. As far as cinema is concerned, making your own film is the high point of creativity. So I really want to experience that some day.

What is this about you moving to Mumbai?

How was it, playing JC Daniel in Celluloid ?

It’s not about a shift to Mumbai. It’s just that I am really sick and tired of hotel rooms now. Last year I spent so much time in Mumbai, and so much of my time inside hotel rooms, that I thought if I really was going to spend that kind of time in that city, then I’d rather live out of a home. It’s just that I’d find myself a place when I am in Mumbai. That doesn’t mean that I am going to lock up everything here and shift base to Mumbai. It’s just that I need a place to stay when I am in Mumbai, which is not a hotel room.

Good, good. It is a privilege for me to play JC Daniel, the founder and father of Malayalam cinema. It was definitely on my wishlist and as fate would have it, Kamal sir, when he wrote the film, thought of me as JC Daniel. It’s a great spectrum to explore as an actor because I play everything from a 25 year old to a 75 year old. The journey that this man has had to go through in life, is simply incredible. People would just see the film and say it’s all too much of imaginative stuff. But the fact is that everything that you see in Celluloid really happened to that man’s life – it is an incredible story.

Your fans were disappointed with Aiyyaa. On the ﬂipside, your female fan-following grew in leaps and bounds!

been placed on me. The filmmaker walked up to me and said that he needed me to be a sex symbol in the film. That was very new to me. The script demanded that I get into that kind of a shape. It is not the first time that I had got into that kind of a shape for films. Even for films like Hero and Lollypop in Malayalam and for Ravanan in Tamil, I had got into very good shape. With Aiyyaa, it’s just that the whole talk of me being portrayed as a sex symbol gave it an interest value. If another character that I do in the future demands that kind of physicality, of course I will do it.

hitting the gym for two hours, maintaining a very strict diet and eating only what you have to eat – all that for six months is very tough. You need to be driven, you need to be in a particular state of mind to be able to do that; and at that particular time I was very driven. It was for the first time that a demand like that was placed on me. I don’t know if anybody from Kerala has ever managed to do that in a film. I had a trainer, I had a nutritionist, I had a physiotherapist and all these people were working with me for that.

So, this wasn’t your ﬁrst tryst with six-pack abs – what did you do to get them?

Talking about your performance in Aiyyaa, this is the ﬁrst time we’re seeing Prithviraj as a dishevelled, reticent, yet creative soul. Was this a role you identiﬁed with, on any level?

I had to spend a lot of time in the gym. For a six-month period, I was on a very strict diet and very rigorous workouts. It was tough. When you do something that leads you to a goal at the end of six months, it is very important that you stay focussed. Waking up at 4.30 in the morning and hitting the gym for two hours and again in the evening

Actually that was the role. The other part of it was just a girl’s fantasy. So the only part of the role that I identified with is the original role, as the fantasy was just a dream. You really don’t have to identify with the character when you are doing a “Dreamum wakeupum...” bit. You just need to have fun. Obviously the character is the other guy – Surya.

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

Now you’re considering going behind the camera... What inspired that?

Tell us about your stint in Tamil cinema – what’s happening on that scene, right now? Nothing! Two languages is all that you can handle. Being a hero, you can’t be a part of three languages at the same time. A character actor can, because he would spend maybe 10 or 15 days on a film. As a hero, I may have to spend 100 days in each film. It is really not possible to be doing three films in three different languages at the same time. Shuttling between Mumbai and Kochi is a big deal for me.

You’re gradually evolving into a pan India actor. Would you like to be known as a star or as an actor? Actor, definitely! Nobody becomes a star. Usually what happens is when an actor is so good that he consistently connects with people, then he becomes a favourite. These favourites are called stars. Nobody can come and say, “I am going to become a star”. You can only first become a good actor. I am still trying to be that... March 2013 | Southscope

AND.... action! Women directors are quite a rare breed in the Telugu film industry. BV Nandini Reddy is one of them who came in with a bang with Ala Modalaindi in 2011 after struggling for some years to find a break. She had done it all from being an assistant director to a radio jockey to a creative head in a television channel but never gave up on the movies. Her patience paid oﬀ finally when she tasted the fruits of her labour with the stupendous success of her first film Ala Modalaindi made without stars. Success was sweeter as all the struggles seemed to fade into the background. Her second film Jabardasth which has been declared a hit, was backed by reputed producer Bellamkonda Suresh and features the stars Siddharth and Samantha. Radhika Rajamani chats with the director on her life, career and aspirations

What strikes you about Nandini is her joie de vivre, her humour, confidence and the positive attitude. Perhaps this is what has helped her in the tough journey she has had so far and will be of great benefit ahead too. I meet her when she is in the midst of interviews, shuttling from one place to another. She sits down for this conversation in a cheerful mood, as she recalls and recounts the days gone by.

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Storming a male bastion is no easy task but Nandini has done so with panache and triumph. She helmed a film which just swept the box office and catapulted her to the big league. I ask her where it all started. “As a child, I loved my Amar Chitra Kathas. I think that was the seed of it all. The pictorial representation of the story is actually a shot division – it is actually a mini cinema that is happening. I’m so possessive about those books that I still have them. I loved the way stories are told. I would always add some masala in a story when told it. Maybe there was a narrator in me that didn’t really kick in until much later. In fact, my roommate in JNU, New Delhi, where I did MA in Political Science, used to tell me that whenever I used to wake up early to study, for some reason I would say lights, camera and action (laughs). Maybe it was there in the subconscious – but never in the forefront because I didn’t know how films were made, what roles one can play or any such. I didn’t know anything about direction or screenplay.” After she came back from JNU she realised she didn’t want to be a bureaucrat and wondered what to do. She was trying to explore television and copywriting. “When you don’t know about the media, you are asking questions. At that time, Little Soldiers happened. A friend’s friend happened to know Gangaraju (director) garu and he asked me to work with him. I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do when they said I had to work as an assistant director. It started from there.” She nevertheless joined the unit of Little Soldiers and enjoyed her stint thoroughly. At the end of the film Nandini, had found her calling. “Gangaraju garu spoke to my mother and said that he thought I should continue in this field as he thought I had a career here. I felt comfortable doing what I was doing. You feel you are the fish who has suddenly found water and this is where you are meant to be.” A woman director in the big world of tinsel town in Telugu cinema is very rare. “I never felt

THE FILM THAT HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT ON ME: MAYA BAZAAR, GEETHANJALI AND IRUVAR. I ALSO LOVED MUGHALE-AZAM, DO BIGHA ZAMEEN (I READ PEARL S BUCK’S THE GOOD EARTH AND SAW THE FILM!) AND ALL OF BASU CHATTERJEE’S AND HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE’S FILMS.

odd. Of course initially people were feeling odd that a girl was working. The oddness was from there and not from my mind. The good thing about me is I don’t remember things for too long. I consider myself too lazy to carry baggage around. I feel people change depending on your attitude. I always thought that I was one among them and got into things, I never thought I was a coy and delicate person to begin with. Somewhere the initial discomfort they had, changed and with that their attitude changed.” For Nandini, the actual shift began when she got into commercial cinema and started working with director Krishnavamsi. “Although initially he was apprehensive about a girl joining the team he was

convinced later on. Once I joined him it was a completely different experience,” she avers. Nandini had a lot of fun. “Doing films like Chandralekha, Murari and Antahpuram were fantastic experiences to see how Vamsi handled actors, to see how they responded to him. We were so charged. It was Vamsi who used to get us to that space. Whatever he said about the story, or scene we wanted to give him the best so that he could do it. We used to have a great time. Even with big stars like Mahesh (Babu) or Sonali Bendre on the sets our unit was so friendly and funloving. Mahesh never treated us like assistant directors, but more as friends.” Nandini went on to assist Krishnavamsi for seven years. “The camaraderie and friendliness in the unit continued for so long that I forgot about doing a film until Vamsi asked me when we were doing Shakti, how long I was going to keep assisting him. He asked me if I didn’t want to make a film myself – and it struck me then, that I needed to do that! I was with him for seven years. It’s just too comfortable being on the sets that you tend to forget everything else. You are doing all the work and you have no responsibility. Vamsi had the burden of it all.” When it struck her that she should do a film she was working on Shakti with Karishma Kapoor. “We were just talking and Karishma mentioned My Best Friend’s Wedding. She asked if I had a written script. I said no then, but later wrote it and then went to her with it. She loved it. Sonali Bendre loved it and then she said she would get Salman to do it. Sadly, thanks to my bad luck, Yashraj Productions was doing Mere Yaar ki Shaadi. That fizzled out. Shakti bombed. Vamsi liked the script and said that it was good writing. He sent me to Suresh Babu.” Then began the difficult period in Nandini’s life where she wrote many stories but nothing took off. The struggle began though there wasn’t a dearth of people encouraging and helping her. “I was meeting Suresh Babu as March 2013 | Southscope

FILMMAKERS I’M INSPIRED BY: BAPU AND KV REDDY. WHEN I SAW MUNNABHAI, I WAS INSANELY JEALOUS OF RAJU HIRANI AS I THOUGHT IT WAS SUCH AN AMAZING WAY TO TELL A STORY! WHEN I SEE FILMS OF SHOOJIT SIRCAR, SUJOY GHOSH, DIBAKAR BANERJEE AND IMTIAZ ALI, I ASK MYSELF WHY I DIDN’T COME UP WITH SUCH STORIES! GANGS OF WASSEYPUR AND PAAN SINGH TOMAR WERE BRILLIANT FILMS, TOO. a wannabe director to work on scripts that he may approve of. That period honed my scriptwriting skills as he pointed out things in the writing which needed improvement. That also helped me. Allu Arvind garu and K. Raghavendra Rao garu encouraged me, listened to me. Somehow for some reason the projects were not getting set. After a period of trying I wondered why it wasn’t happening. Somewhere, I felt it was because of my gender. I understand that some may have doubts because they’ve never seen a woman director in a commercial film but I tried not to think too much about it.” Nandini kept going on despite this struggle. She kept working all the time. “My friend Geetha said I was talking non-stop about films, and that I should consider them for a living. Then I got into radio with World Space. Whichever thing gave me some new direction, I would move onto it and that would recharge me completely. I never thought I wouldn’t do films, I knew it would at some point of time. When I got into radio I was happy.”

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

FILMS OF HEROES I LIKE: I LOVED WATCHING MOVIES OF AMITABH BACHCHAN AND RISHI KAPOOR WHILE GROWING UP.

She also had a stint in television. “When I was doing television I was happy as I was the creative head. Shyam Prasad Reddy really believed in me. Doing his TV show as a creative head gave me a boost and he’s the one who told me the year I made Ala Modalaindi, that if I did not get a producer, he would produce the film for me. I’ve always had these little angels around me. When my morale dips or I feel a little low in life, I’ve always had at least one person who has come up to me and said, “You are fantastic and you are going to do it.”” Nandini’s dogged attitude won the day. After all the struggle trying out various media Nandini finally managed to get a producer for her first film. “Kalyani Malik (music director) told me, there’s this producer called Damodar Prasad. I just told her that they would listen and say no, so she should just forget it. But he told me to come, and I went, very disgruntled. I gave Damodar Prasad a narration and it just took him that narration to do the film. I already had Nani in mind as we met when he was an assistant director and we were very good friends.” Nandini finds Nani photogenic and very expressive and total hero material. She made Nani agree too. “Before I could make a film Indraganti Mohankrishna was looking out for a hero and we sent Nani’s pictures and the ad we did with him. He was selected for that film (Ashta Chamma) where he played the main lead subsequently.” Ultimately, the raconteur in Nandini bloomed with Ala Modalaindi. Though she had a producer it was not smooth sailing it. “Ala Modalaindi was a really tough journey. It was a huge struggle for me and my producer as well because it had nothing going for us. Everything was against us. People were asking my producer why he was getting this girl to do it, and that I might have just wound up losing his money. The film was delayed. In all that I had my spots of sunshine in the film. Nithya Menen, Nani and Kalyani Malik believed in the film so much and constantly in every crisis, they rallied around me and kept me going. My producer, Damodar Prasad, in spite of everything going against him, refused to give up. He believed that the film would

FILMMAKERS I ADMIRE: BAPU, MANI RATNAM, SHEKHAR KAPUR, KV REDDY AND K.VISHWANATH.

work because it worked for him when he heard it. I think we stubbornly believed in it.” Ala Modalaindi is still close to Nandini’s heart. After all, she had triumphed after a long struggle. “I think I can write a book on the making. It’s a huge thing but today I feel the struggle made the success so much sweeter, I feel so vindicated. I’ll always say no other success will mean as much as the success of Ala Modalaindi does, to me. I’ll never forget that period of my life, never forget those first few days of release, never forget the text messages I received, never forget the fears that I saw and all the joy that I saw in my friends’ faces. Some of them were so choked with emotion that they couldn’t speak. That period of my life is never coming back, no matter whatever else I achieve or don’t.” With the super-duper hit in her kitty Nandini was suddenly at the centrestage, under the limelight. Have male perceptions changed now? “Partly. With Ala Modalaindi they think I have managed to make a commercial film. But, it is not considered a totally commercial film in the sense of a masala hero film. Jabardasth is more of a masala film.” Nandini has to still contend with her gender in a male-dominated arena even though she doesn’t bother about it much. “I tend to forget that I am a woman. In my head I’m just a director. My gender doesn’t strike me until someone reminds me. 90% of the time I’m doing my own thing. It’s just that when I see some hero or producer slightly hesitant, then it registers in me. It takes me a day to get set with my actors. Their apprehension may exist till they come on the set. But after that, I’ve been able to instil confidence in them. In fact I’ve had a lot of fun on my sets!” Her second film, Jabardasth starring Siddharth and Samantha in the lead roles with a cameo by Nithya Menen, released on February 22 this year to a great response. She’s all smiles and laughter when she talks about it. “It is a whole bunch of madcap characters put together in a bhelpuri mix. Jabardasth has varied characters. It’s a comedy carnival.” Being comfortable in comedy comes naturally to her as Nandini

THE FILMS I WATCH MANY TIMES OVER: ANIMATION FILMS LIKE KUNGFU PANDA AND FINDING NEMO, AND THEN THERE’S MAYA BAZAAR, MIRCH MASALA AND JAANE BHI DO YAARON (I LOVE THIS FILM)

has an innate sense of humour. She chose an unusual pairing of Siddharth and Samantha as both are good actors. Nithya’s been given a quirky characterisation written specially for her. One is likely to see Nithya in all Nandini’s films as she wants her to put in her appearance whatever the role may be. Nandini doesn’t mind helming someone else’s script. “I would be more than happy if somebody gives me a rocking script. That will be the best thing to happen. I want to do the films that I have fun doing. I’m like a kid in a candy store. If I’m bored with vanilla, I’ll shift to strawberry or chocolate.” On experimentation in cinema, she says, “I don’t want to experiment for the sake of it. I don’t consider myself wise or intelligent enough to want to impart some gyaan to the world. But if I feel there’s a story that needs to be

told, and I feel I can tell it well, then I will do it – whatever it may be – commercial, non commercial, art or non-art.” Nandini is a great foodie. “I love to eat all kinds of cuisine, love travelling, love reading books, I’m constantly listening to music, I’m a movie buff and I love sleeping! I’m Garfield – give me lasagne and a couch and I’ll sleep. I love reading comics and read everything from Chacha Chaudhry to Amar Chitra Katha, from Phantom to Superman. I love reading Roald Dahl, RK Narayan and Ruskin Bond – they are absolute favourites.” Totally dedicated to living life fully, Nandini thinks that life can take her anywhere. “Today it is cinema, tomorrow it could be anything else. Maybe I’ll do travel and cooking shows. I’m very jealous of Kylie Kwong.”

THE FILMS I WANT TO REMAKE: GEETHANJALI AND AGNINAKSHATRAM. IT’S SACRILEGE TO TOUCH THEM. I REVERE THOSE FILMS SO MUCH. I WOULD WANT TO REMAKE THEM, BUT I SHOULDN’T.

March 2013 | Southscope

Take us through the most memorable and difﬁcult moments in your career so far… Everyday is a memorable day for me. Shooting is fun. While on the sets, we fight and argue a lot. But we have fun all the same. When my films release, I love the fact that people come up and appreciate my work. On the day that Chennai 28 released, I was surprised at how it opened to packed houses. It was a film made with new faces, and I never knew it would be that big!

You started off as an actor, but when things didn’t take off on the commercial acting front, you took on character roles. How did those initial few years prepare you for your career as a director?

should know that when we go up, we have to come down. Only very few can stay on top. Nothing is in our hands at all – life and its trajectory are all things in the hands of the scriptwriter up there (points skywards).

I acted in a film which never released – it was directed by my father, and my uncle composed the music for it. I don’t know why it never saw the light of day – it was in 1995-1996. Back then, my life was a major struggle. I became an actor, but then I realised that I never wanted to be a hero, I only wanted to remain an actor. I chose films where my performances were character roles. I never thought I would make it as a director so fast – it was such a sudden thing! I wanted to become a director and wanted to write, yes, but it all happened so fast. It was, though, only because of Charan that I could direct my film. I must say that acting helped me a lot because it let me see an easier way to explain my vision to artistes. In fact, in Biriyani, Karthi would tell me to act first so that he could gain an insight into the body language and my own ideas. He wanted to integrate his ideas with mine. My struggles have made me stronger. I believe that I can survive anyhow. My experiences have ensured that I remain grounded and taught me not to attach too much importance to success. See, I don’t overdo it when I am successful, and don’t worry too much when I am not. We

Your ﬁlms have a near cult following. Did you ever see that coming?

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Never! I just wanted to make entertaining films that audiences of all age groups – from six to sixty – would enjoy watching. It feels good to have such a following. People say that I am a different kind of a filmmaker. It is disheartening that people don’t take comedy very seriously when in reality it is the toughest thing to do. It is easy to make people cry, but very hard to make somebody laugh. People think it is not good enough to award a comedy picture as the best film of the year. When I did a game show for a television program, a person asked me when I would do realistic films. I told him that Chennai 28 was realistic, and that people liked it because it was so. When you show something sad and people suffering – that is reality, definitely. But reality is subjective, and reality is also about people who enjoy and celebrate even if they don’t have enough subsistence for a day. The thing is, melodrama is always hyped, to the point that all else is secondary. We are all filmmakers but they categorise us. All of us make different kinds of films, but ultimately, cinema is cinema.

I think my most difficult period was the time I spent convincing producers to say yes to my scripts. My style of filmmaking is different. I focus a lot on the visual experience. For example, to tell the story of Chennai 28 was hard. It was heavily visual. A producer has to understand that it would work, and then back it up. In Mankatha, the second half was a chase entirely. It was hard getting it out in words to explain to the producer. It is also challenging to work with a lot of people crowding around. In Saroja, the accident scene had a huge traffic pile-up. We went through hell while shooting with Ajith in Dharavi. Dharavi is the most populated Tamil area in Mumbai. We took Ajith there – he is such a huge star, and naturally all the attention was focused on him. We could only shoot in bits and pieces. We shot a few takes in Hyderabad and matched it. It is also hard working on a multi-starrer. It is a big deal to convince two big stars. For instance, Ajith and Arjun had to be convinced of their roles in the film. Arjun had doubts where his role in Mankatha was concerned, even before it released. He would ask me if he was even there in the film as his role was small. I have known Arjun since I was very young – and he calls me Prabhu even now, after having seen me as a kid. After seeing the film in the dubbing stage, he saw that I had executed onscreen, all that I had promised him. That finally convinced him of his role. With my boys, though, it is easier – they don’t ask questions, but just do whatever I tell them to do. Big stars tend to ask a lot of questions, as they need to know very clearly, where they stand in the film.

“BIG STARS ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS” What is your creative process like? I don’t know! I do agree to things, but I tend to second-guess myself. So I need to ensure that I really like something before I agree. I ask myself a lot of questions. I write my scripts in Auroville. Being a Mother devotee, I go to Auroville quite often. I think that is my creative spot. I don’t have a process though. I do work on lines, and build an ethos surrounding that line of thought. For instance, say, a bank robbery. I would build on it with back stories and such else.

You seem to be repetitive in your casting even if not entirely your whole cast, most of them. Why? They make it much easier for me. And they also charge me much lesser...

Your brother Premji’s best roles are in your ﬁlms. Why do you think he isn’t able to shine so much under other directors? Premji is not like Santhanam. You can’t compare them both. Santhanam writes his own dialogues and delivers his comedy. Premji is more of a character-oriented comedian. I think that is why it has worked well with our combination – I identify that and work with that. When I write a character for him, I know that it needs to be a mix of a funny situation and a funny character. Others expect him to write his own dialogues. Premji and Santhanam, themselves, though, share a great rapport. They are planning to do some work together in the future.

so now I am looking to finish Biriyani as soon as possible. I might come up with another project this year. But I don’t want to keep it big as none of the big stars are available. I want to make a boyish film – something that would be enjoyable, and liked by everyone. I may even do a romantic comedy. I haven’t done one yet, and a lot of people seem to be asking me when I would do it. I don’t know, because I don’t have a script ready.

So are you thinking of a multi-starrer with your usual cast? Or are they all going to be new faces? It could be my boys, or it could be someone new. I don’t know, really! Once I finalise the script I’d probably know if it would be a multi-starrer or one with a huge cast. I really want to do something small, which is what I love.

Mankatha was a huge hit. What has been your biggest take home from the experience of directing Ajith? The responsibility was higher because of the fan following that Ajith has. He is a cool guy, and he was a friend even before we started Mankatha. He is like a brother to me. I acted with him in a movie called Ji, and from then, we always wanted to work together after Chennai 28. Working with him was a pleasure. He has no hang ups, he doesn’t behave like a superstar, and he simply made life easier for everyone around him.

What’s happening right now?

You seem like the kind of person that isn’t afraid of taking risks. Do you think that is a good thing?

I am taking it slow. It has been a long time since my movie hit the screens. People who liked my style have been missing my movies. It’s been one and a half years after Mankatha,

I think people want fresh stuff, and we are just catering to them, the audience. Everything should be fresh for them. They need a new experience each time they go to

Actor and director Venkat Prabhu is all set to let his pot of Biriyani be served to the masses soon. Shankaran Malini chats with the talented director

the theatre. If you don’t take a risk, you can’t give them that. Everything is already done, at some point or the other. It is all about how you present what’s already done that matters. It gives you a thrill when risk pays off. Only a producer who can understand and believe that it will work can help you take that risk and back it up. I will be starting my own production company to do whatever I want to, myself. I find that it is much easier to explain my ideas to myself than to another person. I may do it this year. I may call it Black Ticket Company. I will make my own films to start with, and later I might – I haven’t planned this yet – listen to scripts from outside.

Is there a dream project you want to pursue? What is it? That would be a children’s film – a film with kids and for kids. It won’t be about kids going through a hard time in life, but a celebration of what it is to be a kid. I want to do something with magic or fantasy as the theme.

You’ve always wanted to work with Ilayaraja... He is a legend! I am proud to be his nephew – he is my uncle, my father’s older brother. I am a die-hard fan of his and I hope to work with him in the future. That has always been my dream. I want to do a film where he and his music will play a huge part. His music has soul, and it is experiential. I grew up listening to his songs, to the point that even when I get music from Yuvan, I always use his father’s songs as a comparison. We work on a composition or raga and try to emulate his skill. For the song “Vaada Bin Lada” from Mankatha, we used a raga that the maestro used in Durgamahendralu, directed by my father. I wanted a similar raagam, and Yuvan made the song in that raga. March 2013 | Southscope

PRACTICE MAKES

PerFect Shivrajkumar is on a high, as the New Year has begun with success in his bag. Aravind G Shivkamal chats with the star

His 104th film Lakshmi ran to packed houses across Karnataka and superstar Shivrajkumar is no doubt impressed with the way the movie has panned out. He has three more movies lined up for release this year, including the much-awaited Kaddi Pudi, directed by Duniya Soori and Andar Bahar. But it is Lakshmi that Shivarajkumar is most excited about at the moment. Until the movie was released, the impression given by the makers was that Lakshmi was a familysentiment drama. This was received normally, as it has been a formula that has often clicked for Shivarajkumar. In reality, the movie is a thriller in which Shivanna plays the role of a cop. “The movie came out well, quite along the expected lines. It has an impressive script, supported by rich production values. I am happy that the audiences lapped it up!” says Shivanna. The movie has Priyamani playing the female lead role and this is her first film opposite Shivanna. According to him, much of the success of Lakshmi goes to the entire team. “I know the movie was delayed a bit. But we tried to ensure that it was a perfect package. The director (Raghava Loki) does not compromise on anything when it comes to his work,” he pointed out. The success of Lakshmi has given some much-needed relief to Shivanna, whose innings in Sandalwood over the past year were sedate. In 2011, he had two backto-back successes – Tamassu (a critically acclaimed movie, which also fetched him laurels) and Mylari, a commercial success. However, 2012 was a silent year by Shivanna’s standards; his only movie of the year Shiva met with average success at the BO. Since then, Shivanna has been carefully planning his next move.

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His next film – Kaddi Pudi – has set several high expectations in Sandalwood as hit filmmaker Soori and Shivanna have joined hands for the first time. The movie is based on a simple romantic story and Shivanna does not want to reveal much. After Kaddi Pudi, Shivanna will be seen in the stylish Andar Bahar, in the role of a jockey. Shivanna personally likes the project a lot, as the movie features acclaimed theatre personality Arundati Nag, who had earlier played the role of Shivanna’s mother in the blockbuster Jogi, which was remade into several other languages. “The theme of this movie is interesting. It showcases both aspects of an individual – internal and external. How the two characters merge to form a personality is depicted very well in Andar Bahar. I am sure my audiences will love the project,” Shivanna says. The superstar has completed over 100 films in a span of 25 years. Though over fifty years in age, when it comes to dancing, Shivanna can give the younger crop of actors a run for their money with his nimble moves and agile steps! Ask him about this rare talent, and his one-word answer is “practice”. Even his younger brother Puneet Rajkumar, a superstar and dancing sensation in Sandalwood, admits that he idolizes Shivanna in every aspect, including dancing. Right now, the actor is trying something different for his film Bajarang Bali, which will go on floors this month. Directed by choreographer Harsha, it is an action film, with Shivanna expected to sport six-pack abs. Will he be able to achieve it? He says, “Why not? The story demands such a preparation.” Shivanna is already spending a lot of time flexing his muscles and working out at the gym to hone his look. Now that’s what we call the true spirit of an actor!

March 2013 | Southscope

â&#x20AC;&#x153;My daughter actually recognises my voice now!â&#x20AC;? Be it in Alex Pandian or in his upcoming flick, Biriyani, Karthi Sivakumar is all about giving his best. Shankaran Malini chats with him about his baby daughter, life, films and much more

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March 2013 | Southscope

“LOOKING BACK, I THINK I SHOULD HAVE DONE MY PART IN ALEX PANDIAN A LITTLE BETTER” From delivering back-to-back hits to having a few misses, you have seen it all. Would you like to walk down memory lane with us? Well, to start right at the beginning, I think I was always very keen on getting into movies. I couldn’t think of an alternative career choice at all. I guess I wasn’t used to anything different, since I my father and brother were in cinema. I did have academics on my side, and yes, I could have opted for a 9-to-5 job, but I would never have been happy doing anything other than this. In my opinion, my debut film Paruthiveeran, also offered me what I feel is my best role to date. As a first timer, to have done the role of a lifetime is a very big deal, indeed. And thankfully, so far none of the roles I have done fit into the ambit of the “worst roles”! Looking back, I think I should have done my part in Alex Pandian a little better. I think the storyline could have been made a little more believable, so that it could reach out to the masses better. The essence of a film would be best impressed upon audiences if it was more relatable. That said, I have no regrets whatsoever. Irrespective of whether something I do winds up as successful or not, I just keep learning every time. And when one does that, there is no room for regret. You learn and evolve and you keep going on your journey. The key is to have an open mind. Life is one big learning process. You just need to figure out what went wrong when, and try not to ever repeat what didn’t work. It is true for everyone.

What’s happening right now on the work front? Where are you headed? I am working on All in All Azhagu Raja with M Rajesh. I needn’t even say this – but it is a fact that the audience is always prepared for a film by Rajesh. They know how good it is going to be. There’s also the fact that he always delivers everything that is expected of him. It is a very proper love story where everything changes, all equations change completely. Kajal is the heroine, while Santhanam plays a significant role. I enjoy comedies, and I feel situational comedy is my 52

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style. I am also working on Biriyani, which will be releasing this year. My role in the film has been the reason for a complete makeover for me. It has a nice feel to it, and working on it was fun – we are all school friends, and had the most fun one could while working on a film.

I am sure the one question you are asked repeatedly by everyone is about how it feels to be Sivakumar’s son and Suriya’s brother, right? So how about answering it all over again for us? You are right, this question comes up every time! I guess it all comes down to this: You get an easy entry, but that entry comes with expectations that are very high. Nevertheless, once you’re in, it is all about you – who you are or how well connected you are doesn’t matter. You just have to survive on your own talents. I think it is important to hold onto the values you nurture while you grow up. Suriya is busy with his shooting. My father is busy with Mahabharatham, busy taking notes. There is so much to learn from the Mahabharatham. The epic encompasses the very essence of life.

You seem to be the kind of person who would rather be doing something good or simply nothing at all. Is that impression true? I guess I have to be engaged in something all the time. I have to keep always stay occupied. My wife often asks me, ‘Why can’t you sit quietly for sometime?’ The fact is that I just can’t sit idle.

How does it feel to be a father? My daughter actually recognises my voice now – it’s a lovely feeling to be a father. She responds to my voice when I speak to her. We are yet to name her, though (at the time of this edition going to print). With all the shooting happening, I have fairly long days now, so I try to spend as much time as I can with her. She spends most of her time sleeping - so I just wind up carrying her whenever I am around.

“MY WIFE OFTEN ASKS ME, ‘WHY CAN’TYOU SIT QUIETLY FOR SOMETIME?” March 2013 | Southscope

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“I have to thank my fans who are my biggest support. While I was patiently trying to sort out the problems and ensure the release of the film, they supported me. In some places we didn’t have space to put up banners or publicity material. But despite all these hurdles, Kaavalan received a wonderful opening and the problems are forgotten now, thanks to my fans.” “I am interested in politics and I did get opportunities to meet certain political leaders in the past. However right now I am concentrating only on films.”

SO SAID THE

THE STARS THEMSELVES

Southscope has been privy to some intriguing quotes and trinkets over the years. Putting some of them together in a pot pourri of sorts, here is a selection of a few of the best of quotes and incidents in the words of the stars themselves

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March 2013 | Southscope

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“Well, nobody plans to get into a relationship. So I’m waiting for it to happen too. I’d like to be surprised and swept off my feet!” “I don’t think I need to shed clothes to grow. I believe in my potential as an actor and that’s good enough for me.” “First crush….hmm let me tell you about my first love letter. It was given to me by this little sardar dude who was in my class in kindergarten! He tore off a page from his notebook and wrote in it ‘I love you’ and if I’d share his lunch box with him. He gave it to me and ran away. I was fuming all the way home and when I showed the note to my parents, they just wouldn’t stop laughing. And I expected them to behave like any girl’s parents would when they hear a guy has proposed!” “I speak seven languages including Sanskrit, French and Tamil. Malayalam of course is my mother tongue. Since I moved to Mumbai, I’ve picked up a fair amount of Marathi as well. Gujarati too since Vipul Shah and quite a few members of his unit are Gujarati. Throw in a some Punjabi and Haryanvi also, if you will…”

“My two elder brothers are like Jessie’s brother in the film.” “Whatever knowledge I have gained about cinema today is because of Gautham Menon. I am influenced greatly by him, and he’s the reason I’ve improved and my perspective of cinema has changed.” “I hated myself on screen when I saw myself as Jessie for the first time. I cried and cried and could only think, ‘Somebody get me out of here!’ That’s because I am hugely critical of myself and while everyone else seemed to like it, I felt it was a nightmare! But, Jessie changed my life and it will always be a special role for me!” “I think that working with the best people in the industry and having them not hate my guts and still wanting me again in their films, is my greatest achievement!”

“When we were shooting in London for London Dreams, one night just outside my caravan I heard a gang of men approaching. When I looked out I saw these supposed ‘gundas’ who were way too melodramatic to be real goons and they were trying very hard to intimidate me. But of course I knew, this was all a prank. Later I discovered, they were sent by Ajay Devgan!”

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March 2013 | Southscope

“I am not dying to make friends with anyone, the only thing that matters to me is my family – my father, mother and brother and some close friends of mine. I don’t even keep in touch with my co-stars or most of the people I work with. We can’t impress everyone and if you do, then you are not being true to yourself.” “I was a very normal child. I would stand in front of the mirror and pose like a Miss India or a Miss Universe. I had two close friends back in school – Ria and Ashwini. Ria wanted to be a model, I wanted to be an actor and Ashwini wanted to be a fashion designer. Believe it or not, Ashwini became a designer, I became an actor and only Ria was stuck with engineering! It’s uncanny how the things that we chumma said in school have come true.” “I had a sort of puppy love episode when I was in the ninth standard and again a puppy love episode sometime later. But it never got to anything beyond that.” “See, my good friend Ramya and I had gone there and we were having a difficult time because we were mobbed. I actually slapped a guy who was trying to act funny. I don’t like people getting into my personal life or taking undue advantage of it. Something should be done to ban even Twitter in India, because many people do not know how to use it the right way. I don’t like the way my family pictures come out. We take so much time in deciding the look for a film and when we shoot, somebody just clicks it on the mobile and uploads it on Twitter and other social networking sites. It’s so hurtful.”

Photographer: Avinash Gowariker, Stylist: Leepakshi Ellawadi, Makeup: Vipul Bhagat, Hair: Aalim Hakim

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“My dad is one-of-a-kind. He never let me lose sight of reality.” “I am too open to life. I hope that won’t land me in trouble. ” “I was a naughty kid. Rana (Daggubati) and I would be up to pranks the whole time. One of them, we pulled off with amazing consistency and quite effortlessly for long. Whenever we would spot the principal walking out of his room, we would sneak in. One of us would keep a watch and the moment we saw our class teacher passing by, we would emerge out confidently and tell her that we had just obtained the principal’s permission to take the day off. This went on for quite sometime until one day the principal walked into one of our classes and enquired when he found us absent. Lo and behold! The lid was off the Pandora’s Box, so to speak. Luckily for us, our principal was blessed with a great sense of humour. He couldn’t stop laughing.” “When we were 15, Rana and I had heard about a black magicians’ cave in Nanakramguda (in Hyderabad). We were so intrigued that we decided to explore it. One night, we drove down and trekked up the hill.You won’t believe what we saw. There were caves all around with skulls, black dolls and what have you. Right in the centre was a fireplace that was ablaze. Our eyes almost popped out of our heads and our heartbeats were ringing in our ears. We ran for our lives for a couple of kilometres. God! That was the spookiest experience of my life! I wonder what would have happened even if one of us had fainted with fear!”

Photographer: Sunder Ramu Styling: Kaushik Velendra Wardrobe: Studiosaks, RITUKUMAR, Accessories: Ayesha Footwear: Mochi 58

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“Life is beautiful! I believe in enjoying it to its fullest. There will always be peaks and valleys but that’s the most beautiful thing about life, right? I can’t stand people who crib and whine all the time.”

Photographer: G Venket Ram Stylist: Vira Shah Hair: Rachel Make up: Vikram Mittal Sets & Props: Purshotham

“I talk to God. The best thing is that He talks back!”

“I thought I couldn’t love anyone more than Jo but with Diya I found even deeper reservoirs of love.” “All credit for my recognition in Bollywood goes to Aamir Khan. He actually called me before taking up Ghajini and asked for my advice on whether he should do the action film, since I had done the original. That’s something no actor would normally do! I was shocked. I told him, ‘You were my inspiration and I based Sanjay Ramasamy a bit on you, from Dil Chahta Hai. Only you can do justice to Ghajini. I was amazed at his trust and value for my judgment! He even called me to the Muhurat of the movie and I switched on the camera. If Bollywood is talking about me today, it is only because Aamir kept mentioning my name every time, until people started recognising me.”

Photographer: G Venket Ram Makeup: Banu Location courtesy: Fishermen’s Cove, Chennai

“Real people don’t throw tantrums. Acting is like any other profession, is it not? If you are focused on your work and totally enjoy yourself, then where is the question of tantrums?”

March 2013 | Southscope

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“We were on an outdoor location for 40 days. On the last day of shooting, we realised the intensity that was building up between us. I can’t pinpoint the moment we fell in love. It just happened. I love her simplicity. She’s so real. I never proposed marriage to her formally. When I told my father about us, he enquired about our marriage plans. We got married in February, 2005. I’m lucky to have found her. We dated for five years and have been married for five years. Our relationship has gone from strength to strength.” “At four, he shows all the signs of becoming an actor. His birth has made me value my life even more. He’s precious. He’s my life.You’re not a complete man until you become a father.” “I would love to win a National Award. I have no idea if I ever will. But what’s the harm in dreaming?” “I hate liars. I disconnect instantly with people who mess with me. I look for commitment and excellence in the people I work with.”

“I want to be proud of my films. It is much better to show your kids 10 good films than to make excuses to them about why you made 20 bad ones”

Photographer: Ranganath Concept and Styling: Asmita Marwa Clothes courtesy: Benetton Scarves: Asmita Marwa

“I completely idolise my father. I try to emulate his attitude, simplicity and humility. I am blessed to be born to him.”

Once born, the only appointment a human being cannot miss is with death. Maybe I am successful because I recognise failure. I don’t think a film’s failure affected me as much as my father’s and brother’s death.

Photographer: G Venket Ram Stylist: Vivek Karunakaran

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“I am a reluctant actor. I was never keen on it. I always wanted to be a technician and make films, and not be in front of the camera. Like, we made a story and no one else was willing to act in it. So I thought I would have to do it after all. So it was by default through most of my career. Decisions were made that way. It was not schemed, thought of or strategic planning in most of the cases.” “If you ask questions, most of your problems would be solved and you would reach the place you have to reach more quickly. That includes drivers with maps who won’t ask questions, because they want to struggle and find out on their own. If only they ask a simple question – ‘which way’ – they would reach their destination faster. Like most drivers, most people live their lives this way. And I’m no exception. I also fail to ask questions at the right time.” “If only I could define myself, I’d change most of it! And leave it to the others, and make the slow process which sort of trickles down to the criticisms or the original constructive suggestions – all of it trickles down slowly. It’s not a very sharp sculpting tool, therefore it’s been slow. It’s taken 50 years, to be wherever I am.”

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“Sometimes, when I think back, it feels funny how things turned out. But of course, I’m just not complaining!” Ileana told us about these two crushes she had in her teens, both of who were these young dudes, very nervous to talk to her. But later she discovered they were trying to approach her so she could introduce them to her sister, instead! “I am a hopeless romantic, you know. I was pretty heartbroken then, but we laugh our heads off now,” she shares breaking into laughter. “So when I was in college, I liked this guy and I knew he liked me too and very much wanted him to come over to me and confess. When he did, I finally had the pleasure of turning down a guy!” she breaks into a guffaw again. But bubbly as she is, she is also an extremely sensitive person. “When I was about 19, during the shoot of one of my films, I was shouted at for something that wasn’t my fault. I made a real hue and cry about it and just wouldn’t stop sobbing right there on the sets. Over the years, of course, I have learnt to hold my composure even when something goes wrong, but I somehow, never developed that business-like attitude that’s so necessary in showbiz.” “Know what, this choreographer, Suchitra, once told me ‘Don’t change for people. Let them get used to you.’ It’s not arrogance. It’s something so positive that it left a mark on me.”

“When I trouble anyone especially women, be it my mom, aunt or even my fiancé (who is now his wife, Sneha) they would say that I have a wild streak in me which I would have depicted in some of my films!” “Generally, when a film fails, it’s always a blame game. But if there’s a failure, I consider myself to be 100% the reason. I may not have done anything wrong, but I do take up the major responsibility if a film fails. The reason I okayed it – was the subject, it was my call.” And when it’s a success, it’s everyone’s success.” “Well, it’s neither a complete love story nor an arranged marriage.You could call it more of an arranged marriage, just that we knew each other before!” “My perspective about love has always remained the same. Love is unconditional. But then, what would you ask me (more) about love? I am a married man. Well, almost!” “My biggest surprise was: I used to tell my fiancé (Sneha Reddy) that she’s incapable of surprising me. And one day, she somehow found out my shooting spot with the help of my friends and travelled all the way for two hours to meet me and our meeting lasted for less than ten minutes.”

Photographer: Avinash Gowariker Stylist: Nischay Polavarapu Allu Arjun’s Make-up and Hair: Ashwin Grey t shirt by Nischay Polavarapu and Jeans from CELIO Hair: Shabnam Pink short dress from DERHY Shoes from TRESMODE 66

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“I don’t like to imitate anybody. There are advantages and disadvantages when you mimic someone. It can be too risky. Isn’t it better for me to follow my own style? My father always used to tell me that I should be myself. His words are so true.”

“Be natural. Be yourself. Don’t take yourself seriously. Get out of your way to let God handle your life. The day you become nothing, you’ll become everything. Let people be. There are no rights or wrongs. There is no good or bad. Whichever path people wish to take is their choice.”

“I was in Ramoji Film City shooting for my film a few years ago. I heard that Pawan Kalyan was shooting in the same venue. I am a huge fan of his. I wanted to meet him. When he heard about me, he came over and took me to his film set. We had a lengthy discussion. Of all the films, he liked my performance as a child artiste in Bettada Hoovu. I was totally impressed...”

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Photographer - G Venket Ram Stylist - Chaitanya Rao Location - Aluminium Industries Ltd, Lingampally

“If you don’t serve yourself first, how can you serve others? If you’re hungry, will you think of feeding others? If you don’t transcend self first, you’ll be caught in the rut of comparing yourself to the others. Social service becomes a rat race like any other profession.” Photographer: Mahen Simmha Stylist: Nischay Polavarapu Hair and Make up: Leila Sharma Co-ordinated by: Aravind G Shivkamal

“My father has left behind such an unsurpassable legacy. Both my elder brothers are actors. Somehow, I was a bit apprehensive about myself. A lot of planning went into my debut. Fortunately, things have gone the right way in my life and movie career.”

March 2013 | Southscope

CAMEO

“I’ve always been spiritual. I believe in God though I am not ritualistic. I’m very curious about enlightenment. I feel we magnify our problems. If we realise we are not so important after all, life would be happier. I love Osho’s ‘The Art of Dying’. I’ve learnt the importance of living each day and not worrying about the future.”

“I’ve learned the most important lesson: that your film should do the talking and not you.” “My whole life revolves around a single film – my diet, workout, life.” “I get rid of the disappointment by accomplishing success in my next film.”

“I get happy and hurt very easily. I get very disturbed if a film doesn’t do well. I’m human after all. Sometimes, I can be volatile too. But not insecure.”

Photographer: G Venket Ram Styling & Costumes: Vivek Karunakaran

“My biggest learning from the industry has been that people can wow you with words when they narrate a script but when it gets translated into the screen, it can turn out to be a big disappointment. So I learnt never to be carried away by words…”

Photographer: G Venket Ram, Styling & Costumes: Vivek Karunakaran

“I enjoy chilling with my family and friends. It’s not about hanging out at hifi locations but the experience of being with loved ones that matters.”

Photographer: Avinash Gowariker Tamannaah’s Make-up: Chakravarthy Hair: Shabnam Pink short dress from DERHY Shoes from TRESMODE

“You are only as good as your last film. My film’s success is not in my hands. I don’t know how my films will fare, but I should fare better!”

March 2013 | Southscope

CAMEO

Rana: “There’s a certain special

and shampoos all colour-coordinated! As for Rana – he’s very nice to people. I’ve never known him to be a star kid; never seen those qualities in him. Trisha: “There is a special someone. Even now that he’s acting, with the kind of power he has, it would be easy But let’s just leave it that,” she ducks to get himself that way. But he doesn’t. and grins. “It’s too early to talk about it. Not that I care or feel weird but, you Now those are all good qualities. Now, I need something bad … (ponders). know, certain things are meant to be I really don’t know. Oh yeah, he has private, to be precious and guarded. a temper. It’s very subdued, though. And yeah, I also need to be surer of I don’t see it too much. None of his things.” friends do. But he does get impatient and angry sometimes. Now that he’s Rana: Trisha’s so, like, clean and fidgety! I mean, we go to a restaurant grown up, he suppresses it. He’s probably the first person I’d call if I land and she’ll keep arranging stuff. She in Hyderabad, and vice versa. He’s has to be so – kajakajakaja! (makes definitely one of my best friends,” she frantic motions with his hands.) She has to have things a certain way. Gets warms to the topic. “Like, he’s always on my nerves. But what I really like is there for me. He’s so good to me, that she’s systematic. She’s been here and we support each other through in this industry for about 10 years and break-ups, make-ups, everything. has managed to be in the top few. She He’s always ready to offer feedback for still rediscovers herself and tries to do any Telugu film I sign up for. There’s nothing fake about him.” exceptional things. I love that about her. “Call me mad but I think a little bit Trisha: Oh god, yeah, I’m sure I have of possessiveness in a relationship works. It makes me feel very loved an OCD problem. All my friends say and special.” that about me. And you know, I even have to have my clothes, moisturisers someone I’m trying to work things out with.”

Photographer: G Venket Ram Styling: Rehane Yavar Dhala 72

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March 2013 | Southscope

CAMEO

“I have no business to influence my fans to watch my film.” Three things I learnt from being in the movies for so long: Not to expect any loyalties; Not to confide; Not to speak your mind. I’d rather spend time with people who have stood by me through my worst times, who don’t write me off when my film is not a success. I’d rather spend time with people who I know will die for me. Because in the end, we need just four people to carry us!

“Behind the success of my films, there is a collective effort of a lot of people right from light men to millions of fans. I have seen the effort which they all put in but it’s not recognised. I sincerely wish that everyone be given due credit if a film becomes a hit.” “I feel embarrassed when someone calls me Power Star. I don’t believe in records because if not today, they will be broken some other day!”

“I believe in destiny. If your time’s up, your time’s up. If something has to happen, it will and it could be anywhere – in your bathroom, in your car… I believe in the Almighty and leave it to Him to decide when my time’s up! I am here to do my job and if the scene was conceptualised to demand a risky stunt, I don’t think in the negative, I just do it.” “Yes, Sangeeta (wife of actor Vijay) and Shalini are in touch and the children bond very well. It is a very healthy atmosphere. It is so nice to see the kids bond without being conscious of the petty politics that go around in this business.” “Let me put it this way. Being a celebrity is like a goalkeeper’s job.You are remembered not for the goals you save, but for the ones you let go. If you accept that, 80% of the battle is won. Acceptance is key. When somebody walks up to me and says, ‘Hey, your film didn’t do well’, instead of arguing with them, I just say, ‘Yes, it didn’t.’ And that stuns them. It saves me a lot of time, because I know that sometimes people just want to say things to hurt me. So I just look at the person in the eye and say, ‘Ok, I’ll do better next time’.’ That’s all.”

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

Photographer: G Venket Ram Styling: Chaitanya Rao Nagarjuna’s Make up: Dinesh Hair: Raju Costume Assistant: Sekhar Location: Park Hyatt, Hyderabad

CAMEO

Nagarjuna:

“After Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna came, the trajectory of films changed. My father and NTR were doing mythologicals, devotionals and social dramas, which were very intense and heavily dependent on scripts. When Chiranjeevi came, there were more action sequences and song-anddance routines, than stories. There was nothing to compare, so I was fortunate that way.” “Success always makes you confident of your decisions.You feel what you have done is right, what you are doing is right. So if you don’t take it to your head and use it wisely it gets you on the right path.”

Nayanthara:

“I don’t want to discuss my relationship with the entire country. I won’t deny it, but I won’t talk about it either,” “Getting to the top is easier than staying there” “I think people should come and watch me where I belong – in films, and not in commercials. Also, I’m not really interested in being a model and endorsing products, like my contemporaries, most of who were modeling before they got into acting. After Billa came, I was offered a very lucrative endorsement from a liquor brand, but I didn’t take it up because I was just not convinced!” “I do not believe that you have to take off your makeup and look simple to prove you’re an actor!” “If I go by how people react, I’ll never act…”

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

The visions of a veteran Kalaipuli S Thanu is certainly a force to reckon with in Tamil cinema. Having had humble beginnings, his body of work and legacy stand tall today. Shankaran Malini takes a nostalgic walk with him and jogs his memory for anecdotes and milestones from his fascinating journey

Not many people know this, but Kalaipuli S Thanu started off as a film distributor in 1971. “In those days, Madras was divided into parts for film distribution in the areas of Mylapore, Kodambakkam, North Madras and Perambur. Bhairavi was the first film I bought for distribution in Madras. Before that, I used to buy old films and distribute them by using innovative forms of publicity.” Among his repertoire was one film called Kavalai Illadha Manidhan, which didn’t do well at the box office upon its release. “When I bought it and distributed it again using new strategies of publicity, the film was received well and went on to do good business. When I reissued the film, we got rave reviews owing to the publicity.” Thanu used to buy the negative rights of various films, distributing them predominantly in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, besides other parts of India. “In 1984, I produced the film Yaar with two of my friends, one of whom is no more. I approached several heroes for dates, but I never got the encouragement that a new producer would need, nor the recognition for my efforts.” Thanu spent a whopping 36 lakhs on the publicity of Yaar. It was huge money back then and far more than what producers normally spent. “The publicity posters of the film won rave reviews. The poster had just two eyes and one wide mouth where the word Yaar was written in Tamil along with the word “Varugiradhu” meaning ‘Coming soon’. It was a sensational poster design, by any standard. In fact, the publicity tools I had used then were widely appreciated and have now evolved into the present as, ‘Coming soon, to theatres near you.’” Thanu reminisces fondly when it comes to his early opportunities as an upcoming producer. “Rajni sir, who did a guest role in Bhairavi, gave me an opportunity when I was just an upcoming producer. He acted in one scene in that film. Bhairavi ran for 100 days, and at a particular drive-in restaurant, a 100-feet cut out was erected. The highest cut-outs before that 78

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

were for Vanangamudi, and did not go beyond 90 feet. All those heroes who denied me dates regretted their decision after the roaring success of Yaar in 1984.” Thanu went onto producing films independently, and this began with Koolikaran. “Sakthi Kannan, an assistant to Mahendran became a director with this film. I even wrote a song for this film – Varuvaale Devi. The film was a great success. Koolikaran, in 1986, was a remake of Kaalia, and had Vijayakanth in the lead. The film ran for a hundred days, and created a record in the business.” Nallavan followed in 1988, with Thanu helming the film, handling the story, screenplay, dialogue and direction. “The next film was Theruppadal which was renamed as Pudhupadal, owing to an objection raised against the title. This was just a month before the release of the film and despite all the hassles, it crossed 100 days!” It was a film that celebrated the friendship and bonding between Thanu and Vijayakanth. He did three films consecutively with Vijayakanth thereafter. “My next film had Ilayaraja scoring the music. It was the first time that I was producing a film directed by Balu Mahendra. It crossed a hundred and twenty days and also won a national award!” In the early nineties, Thanu produced Thaiyalkaaran with Partheipan in the lead. “When I was told about the script, it was different from what eventually translated onto the screen. I felt that the character played by Partheipan was literally forced on him which is why he didn’t gel with the role.” Kizhakku Cheemayilae, with Bharathiraja as the director and AR Rahman scoring the music, came next. Starring Radhika, Vijayakumar and Napoleon, the film crossed 275 days, which was a huge record, back then. In 1997, Thanu introduced Simran in VIP. She went on to become one of the most sought-after heroines of our times. “It was supposed be Laila but since she created some problem by throwing tantrums and refusing to cooperate with the schedules, I replaced

her with Simran,” he says. Three years later, he handled Mannavaru Chinnavaru with Sivaji, Arjun and Soundarya. The film did well, and was followed by Kandukondein Kandukondein. A multi-star cast with Mammootty, Ajith, Aishwarya Rai, Tabu and Abbas in significant roles, the film which had music by AR Rahman, and was directed by Rajeev Menon ran for 100 days. “Impressed by Tabu’s dedication to her role and to the film, I offered her a Demand Draft of 5 lakhs, and had it handed over through Rajeev Menon, right before she was about to board a flight to Mumbai. I learnt that she was overwhelmed by this gesture.” Though success was undoubtedly his on the professional front, life dealt Thanu a few harsh blows in the next year. “2001 was a bad year for me. I lost my wife Kalavathi to cancer. We had got married in 1973. She was a good soul.” That sparked off a string of troughs. “Aalavandhan, which came next, did bad business and I literally came to the streets. Apparently, many people didn’t follow the idea of the film. But I’m very proud to say that what Kamal Haasan visualised nearly 15 years ago, a Hollywood director could only do three years back.” Thanu reflects on the meandering ways of his life, and realises that there were a lot of helping hands that hastened his ascent. “I got to know my friends, as distributors and businessmen. I will not forget the people who helped me. For example, Satya Ramamurthy’s son, Ramesh, helped me financially. With my next few films like Kaakha Kaakha, Sachien and Mayavi, I was able to pay off all my dues. In fact, with Thotti Jaya, I stabilised my financial position.” Besides his colleagues, Thanu is also appreciative of the cooperation and kindness showered on him by some of the artistes themselves. “The list is long. Vijay is one of them; I am grateful to Rajinikanth and Vijayakanth, too. I lost an opportunity of

working with Rajinikanth because of my involvement in politics, later. I have known AR Rahman ever since Kizhakku Cheemaiyile. He is dedicated and highly involved in all that he does. He has never discussed remuneration with me. Ilayaraja has also given us musical hits but in the beginning we had small issues over remuneration. He was about to score music for Nallavan but he went to compose for Vanna Vanna Pookkal, which went on to become a great musical hit. We have had a great association since then.” Right now, Thanu is in a happy place, especially after the blockbuster success of Thuppakki. “I am planning to make a film with K Balachander. Talks are on and I hope something materialises soon. I also plan to make a foray into television, with a serial titled Saneeswar Parameswar, which will encompass epic sagas like the Ramayana and Mahabharatha. I am certain it will have a cult following. I also have this vision to establish an institution that will help small filmmakers. See, commercial films are successful, but without a good storyline, even they fall flat. That has happened even with Rajini sir himself.”

In all, Thanu has produced 28 films, and says that many of them have crossed a hundred days. “Rajshri Pictures came to me with a request to play my films on the internet. But thanks to all the bad experiences I had had with Aalavadhan where I felt that people in the film industry up north didn’t keep up their word, I told them that I would give them my films for free to play on the internet provided they honoured their commitment to others in the South Indian film industry who came to them for help. They have been sending me cheques every year since, but I have never encashed them.” Two sons and a daughter, and five grandchildren in all, Thanu has the goodness of his family as a support system. “My daughter is a housewife. My second son is a director and his debut was Sakkarakatti. He is working on his next film.”

view the trailer of the film. We had also adopted two villages for the welfare of its inhabitants. Following us, 30 others wanted to adopt 100 villages in all, but a lot of problems that cropped up owing to vested interests, hampered them from carrying out the welfare activities. If village authorities lack unity, it is big hindrance to their welfare.” Purity in every sense has always defined Thanu’s life. “Once, there was a raid in my office, under the assumption that I had hidden black money somewhere and had undisclosed assets considering that my films have had a great turnover. But they could find nothing whatsoever. For me, it is always about Naanayam, meaning purity in speech and in business practices. I pursue my tasks with complete dedication and sincerity.”

To Thanu, philanthropy is a very important quality to possess. “During the making of Kanthaswamy, we had innovative publicity tools. If you recall, when you opened our audio launch invite, you would be able to March 2013 | Southscope

FASHION

BRIGADE Who wore what, and who dressed how!

Tamannaah: Doll-like charm Priyamani: Turning up the â&#x20AC;&#x153;ambassadorâ&#x20AC;? charm

Sunil: Expectations

Vimala Raman: Urban chic Naga Chaitanya: Rugged rodeo

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

Salman Khan: Da-bang

March 2013 | Southscope

Siddharth: Upping the ante

Shruti Haasan and Sonu Sood: Whatcha saying?

Sridevi, Boney Kapoor and Children: Family vamily

Venkatesh: Dapper and dashing

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

Malayalam Cast: Mammootty, Reenu Mathews, Fahadh Faasil, Aparna Nair, Mukesh, Salim Kumar and Guinness Pakru. Direction: Lal Jose Production: S George

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Emmanuel is a film directed by Lal Jose and produced by S. George. The film stars Mammootty in the titular role, with Reenu Mathews playing the leading lady Annie, and Fahadh Faasil in a role as Jeevan Raj.

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Other cast and crew include Aparna Nair, Mukesh, Salim Kumar and Guinness Pakru, all in rather pivotal and significant roles.

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The film is all set to release in April 2013. Lal Jose says that Emmanuel is a soft film without any hullabaloo, and is a simple story.

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The film follows the character of Emmanuel, a man who works at a publishing house and is placed in a personal crisis after it closes down. The hardships and harsh realities he faces after the closure make him wake up to reality, and he begins to see himself and his life in a new perspective that is often outside of his personal comfort zone.

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The official casting for Emmanuel began in the middle of last year. Grapevine had it that John Abraham and Balachandra Menon would be part of the product, but the former was declared as mere rumours by Lal Jose and the latter, by Balachandra Menon himself.

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With Mammootty playing the protagonist, many thought Faasil was essaying a negative role. However, Lal Jose had gone on record to deny it, while confirming that Faasil would be portraying a company executive. In early January 2013 Jose announced that he had cast Reenu Mathews as Mammootty’s wife in the film.

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Filming began in Kochi in the beginning of this year, with a majority of scenes being cast in the same city. - Kirthi Jayakumar

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

kannada Cast: Ambareesh, Darshan Toogudeepa, Rachita Ram, Sharath Lohitashwa Direction: M.D. Sridhar Production: Dinakar Toogudeepa Music: V. Harikrishna

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Bulbul is the remake of the Telugu blockbuster Darling. Darshan owes his success in his career to a large extent, to remakes. Looks like the trend continues now with the actor preferring to work on a remake based on the original story after two back-to-back hits. Produced by his brother Dinakar, the movie went on the floors recently.

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The movie was in the news for all the wrong reasons. The makers approached Kajal Aggarwal, Tamannaah and Anushka Shetty for the role of the female lead. After all of them rejected the offer, the filmmakers approached Divya Spandana (Ramya), who even tweeted about being a part of Bulbul. Eventually, Ramya quit the project making way for Rachita Ram, a new face. In the last three years, Darshan has been acting opposite newcomers and it looks like the trend continues.

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Well-known Hindi film actor Pradeep Rawat was to appear in the role of the main antagonist. The actor even turned up for shooting in Bengaluru. But on the very first day, he developed differences with the production unit over a few issues. The matter had reached the police station. They patched up and Pradeep decided to opt out of the project. Director Sridhar was quick in finding Sharath Lohithashwa as the replacement.

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Superstar Ambareesh is seen in character roles these days. In Bulbul he plays the role of Darshan’s father. Interestingly, the title is borrowed from Ambareesh’s blockbuster movie Naagara Havu, where Ambareesh addresses girls as “bulbul”. Clearly, in the remake, the filmmakers are taking advantage of the popularity of the same. - Aravind G Shivkamal

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

telugu Cast: Ravi Teja, Shruti Haasan, Anjali, Prakash Raj Direction: Gopichand Malineni Production: Prasad Vara Potluri Music: S. Thaman

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Ravi Teja seems to be going through a dull phase these days and Balupu is a serious attempt at a comical break. Indeed, comedy is the genre that has fetched this versatile actor name and fame in the past decade. Directed by Gopichand Malineni, Balupu went on floors last year and is scheduled for completion shortly.

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Incidentally, shooting for Balupu was kept under wraps because the director was not keen on revealing the star cast. However, Shruti Hassan broke the secret by announcing that she would be seen in a comical role for the first time in her career. The actress even admitted that it was her first attempt at comedy role in a film in any language. We sure hope Shruti’s performance rises up to her own expectations.

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Gopichand has roped in hit music composer S Thaman, who plans to release the tracks in Vijayawada in April. The attraction of Ravi Teja’s movies lies in the songs, and the tracks from Balupu are expected to be chartbusters. This is Thaman’s second venture with Gopichand after Bodyguard.

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The director has roped in an interesting assemblage of stars, including the likes of Anjali, Prakash Raj, Ashutosh Rana, Nassar and Brahmanandam, besides the lead stars. The movie will be a bilingual considering that Shruti’s popularity in Tamil Nadu is also high. Balupu is currently in its post-production stages.

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Will Ravi Teja be able to bounce back with Balupu? Will Shruti break new ground in a tough genre like comedy? We will know our answers soon enough. - Aravind G Shivkamal

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

tAMIL Cast: Karthi, Hansika Motwani, Premgi Amaren and others Direction: Venkat Prabhu Production: KE Gnanavel Raja Music: Yuvan Shankar Raja

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After Mankatha in 2011, Venkat Prabhu’s next directorial venture is Biriyani, with Karthi, Hansika and Premgi Amaren in lead roles among others. The film is still in its production stages. Venkat says, “The film is nearly 50 to 60 percent complete. We are taking a small break now because Karthi is starting with All in All Azhagu Raja with director M Rajesh. We will resume a bit later.”

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Biriyani was in the news recently for using motion control technology for one its stunt sequences. Venkat Prabhu clarifies, “It is not the Kochadaiyaan thing. The camera movement is actually computerized so that we can take as many layers as we want. We had used this in Mankatha in a song sequence where multiple images of Ajith come in one shot. In each of the layers a different Ajith comes up, and this was done in 12 layers. We are doing something different with the same technology in Biriyani.”

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This is the first time Venkat Prabhu is directing Karthi in a film. Speaking about the actor, he says, “Karthi is fun. I have known him since our school days. Though we went to the same school, we were not that close. Subsequently, he went to the US and I went to UK. I never thought that I will be directing him one day!”

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Throwing light on the shoot locations, Venkat Prabhu says, “The story is set in Chennai. Some of the parts set in Ambur and the highway were shot on the Villupuram-Pondicherry highway. It is really hard to shoot in the streets of Chennai. I will be going abroad for two songs. All the interior portions and house sequences are done in Chennai.”

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The first look of the film garnered rave responses from audiences and fans. “We wanted to show the colours of the film through the posters. We wanted something that the people and audiences could relate to, instead of the usual stuff.” Throwing more light on Karthi’s character and look in the film, he says, “He plays a cool Chennai urban guy. Vasuki Baskar, my cousin who had done the styling for Mankatha has handled Karthi’s styling. We wanted a very suave look and Karthi has pulled it off very well. He is something of a playboy in the film – his character is very cool with women.”

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Biriyani marks the 100th film of Yuvan Shankar Raja and Venkat Prabhu is taking steps to ensure that it is a musical as well. “The CD will have at least 8 to 9 songs. There will be only five songs in the movie.”

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Karthi has turned singer for the very first time in Biriyani. Recording for the song, whose starting line goes, “Mississippi... Mississippi... nadhi idhu...”...’ was done in the presence of Premgi Amaren, who sang along with Karthi. The lyrics for the song were penned by Valee.

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Justifying the film’s title, Venkat Prabhu says, “Of course it is a very catchy name. Not just that but Biriyani also plays a main part in the film. It is about a guy who loves Biriyani and how his love for Biriyani gets him into trouble.” Ask him about virtually retweeting updates about Biriyani and related content, he says, “They made me the official owner of Biriyani in the country (laughs). Also fans and followers tag me in any Biriyani related tweets, or whenever they eat Biriyani and stuff like that.”

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Sakthi Saravanan is handling the cinematography for the film. UK-born actor and model, Mandy Takkar has also been roped in. - Shankaran Malini

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

Malayalam

LADIES AND GENTLEMAN Cast: Mohanlal, Mamta Mohandas, Mithra Kurian, Padmapriya and Kalabhavan Shajon Direction: Siddique Production: Antony Perumbavoor Music: Ratheesh Vega

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Hit-filmmaker Siddique, whose Bodyguard was a nation-wide blockbuster and who has made his presence felt in Tamil and Hindi in a big way, returns to Malayalam with Ladies and Gentleman. Mohanlal plays the lead role in Ladies and Gentleman, which is scripted by Siddique himself.

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It’s after a gap of two decades that Mohanlal and Siddique are teaming up. Mohanlal had played the lead role earlier in Vietnam Colony, the 1992 film directed jointly by Siddique and Lal.

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Ladies and Gentleman narrates the happenings that unfold when four ladies make their entry into the life of Chandrabose, who is a perfect gentleman and who is liked by all. The four ladies are Anu, Achu (Ashwathy), Jyothi and Chinnu. While Jyothi is an air hostess, the other three are IT professionals.

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Mamta Mohandas is the lead heroine, playing Anu, a dynamic IT professional. Padmapriya gets to play a very important role in the film, that of air hostess Jyothi while Mithra Kurian, who had played a key role in Siddique’s Bodyguard, plays a key role in the film. She appears as Chinnu, an IT professional.

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Krish J Sathar, the son of actor Sathar and yesteryear heroine Jayabharathi, plays a very important role in the film. Krish plays Sharath, whose entry too brings about a big change in the life of the protagonist Chandrabose. Kalabhavan Shajon, who had recently won fans with his performance in My Boss, plays a very interesting character, that of Chandrabose’s constant aide, Mani.

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Prominent artists like Manoj K Jayan, Ganesh Kumar, Nassar and Krishnakumar are part of the cast. Dr. CJ Roy of Confident Group associates with Antony Perumbavoor of Ashirwad Cinemas in the production of Ladies and Gentleman, which is currently in the making.

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Rafeeq Ahamed is the lyricist while Satish Kurup handles the cinematography and Mani Suchitra the art direction. Ladies and Gentleman is slated to release in April, thereby hitting screens as this year’s Vishu release for Mohanlal. - Unni R Nair

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

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The blockbuster success of Puneet Rajkumar’s multi-starrer Hudugaru has spawned a generation of films featuring multiple stars. Of course, not many have had the same success. Nevertheless, Kannada filmmakers continue to churn out multi-starrers. Loosegalu belongs to the same genre. A comedy film featuring some of the top stars and emerging actors of Sandalwood, shooting for the film is over.

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The highlight of the movie is an “item dance” by well-known actor Rekha Vedavyas. The actor, who had turned down several such offers in the past, appeared to have relented for this movie. According to her, the film is well made and contains all the ingredients to become a hit. Loosegalu marks the debut for director Arun, who has worked under renowned Kannada filmmakers before.

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Another important element in the movie is Vani Harikrishna’s debut. The wife of award-winning top-rated music composer, V Harikrishna, Vani gained popularity as a playback singer. Through Loosegalu, she is emerging as an independent music composer. She says that the movie had several catchy tunes considering that each character is different.

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The cast is packed with several veteran comedy actors and Srimurali is excited with their presence. According to him, Loosegalu is a comic satire that depicts reality in a comical way. “I needed to break away from the same old roles and the role in this film is a bold attempt. Don’t go by the title because it is a movie that sends many messages to society!” he says.

kannada

Loosegalu Cast: Rekha, Srimurali, Sriki, Aishwarya Nag Direction: Arun Production: Syed Hussain Music: Vani Harikrishna

- Aravind G Shivkamal 94

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

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Greeku Veerudu is no period film. Nagarjuna plays the role of a rich NRI in the movie, and happens to be based out of Greece. The movie is all about an industrialist played by Nagarjuna, from Greece trying to woo his ladylove, played by Nayanthara.

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The movie is very stylishly made in lavish sets and exotic outdoor shooting spots. A significant portion of the movie was shot in Switzerland and the US. The post-production work is in progress and Nagarjuna is confident about the movie performing well, especially in the overseas market. Thaman has composed the music and has scored two songs, which are expected to make it to the top 10 lists of the year.

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Nayanthara is paired opposite Nagarjuna and she is obviously excited about the project. The actor is expecting to be among the top five heroines of Telugu cinema. The actor has started appearing in more Telugu cinema and Greeku Veerudu should enhance her popularity among Telugu cinema audiences.

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Nagarjuna has played his flamboyant t character with flourish and finesse. There have even been rumours that Nagarjuna would be seen in a dual role. Is that a possibility? Well, we’ll have to wait and see… - Aravind G Shivkamal

telugu

Greeku Veerudu Cast: Nagarjuna, Nayanthara, Kovai Sarala, Meera Chopra Direction: Kondapalli Dasaradh Kumar Production: D. Sivaprasad Reddy Music: S. Thaman

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

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Director I Ahmed’s Endrendrum Punnagai comes after his first film, Vaamanan, in 2009.

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Ask him about his project, and he explains, “The storyline is from my own personal experience. It is about friendship. A guy has three sides to his life, one is with his friends, another is his love life and third is his relationship with his parents. I have tried to deal with all three at once. The story is about three friends. In a nutshell, it is basically a romantic film, but I can’t slot it as a just a rom-com because there is drama as well.”

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The three friends in the film are Jiiva, Santhanam and Vinay Rai. “It so happens that one of their friends gets married and their friendship is affected as priorities change. The three guys want to be friends forever and decide not to get married. Jiiva plays a director in the movie, Vinay Rai is a cameraman and Santhanam is a production manager. Trisha and Andrea play the female leads in the film. Initially, I tried to rope in Lisa Haydon but it didn’t work out because of problems with the dates. Andrea had the kind of charisma I wanted. Jiiva is a very fine actor and as a friend I have known him for quite some time. Vinay is a handsome dude. He understands the requirements and has done a fantastic job. Santhanam and I have worked together in my previous films. I must say that he has perfectly gelled in the movie. It is a very glossy story,” says Ahmed.

tamil

Endrendrum Punnagai Cast: Jiiva, Trisha Krishnan, Vinay Rai, Andrea Jeremiah Direction: I Mueenuddin Ahmed Production: GKM Tamizh Kumaran Music: Harris Jayaraj

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

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The film is almost 80 per cent done. The crew is heading to France for a 15-day schedule involving a couple of songs and certain scenes. Speaking about the background music of the film, the director says, “This is more or less a musical. That was why I wanted Harris to be a part of it. There are about six to seven songs. We have already composed five songs and are planning for an audio launch in the second week of April. We went to Singapore to compose a couple of songs and then to Pondy and other places.” Ahmed continues, “I wanted to show Chennai in a different perspective. See, my heroes are rich guys. I wanted to capture

that class and so we have a lot of shots in Munnar, the beach here and some portions on ECR. We are now going to France and few other parts of Europe.”

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Shot in a budget of about 18-20 crores, the producer of the film is GKM Thamizh Kumaran, of the banner, Dr V Ram Productions.

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“The only hassles we faced in the film were with the dates. Since so many actors are involved, it was a little tough to coordinate their dates together,” says Ahmed. - Shankaran Malini

March 2013 | Southscope

Fortune Teller Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s magic in March for some, and meditation for the others!

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Arians like Vikram, listen up. February is a month of decision making. It is now time to prioritize among the myriad commitments that are drawing your attention.

Taureans this month will have a lot of work to handle. For Taureans like Ajith Kumar, the workload may seem never ending!

Geminis like Kajal Aggarwal need to sit back a little and ruminate on things they can look to improve. Not a good month to sign something new!

For Libran stars like Prithviraj, March is a time for new beginnings. Sign on the dotted line with flamboyance, because this is a new beginning for many things!

Stars like Asin will have a grand time this month with well-deserved accolades and returns coming in, from past ventures.

Saggitarians like Venkatesh will have a month of sitting back and relaxing after days of longwinding labour.

Cancerian stars like Vijay will have a month of re-connection with people they have lost touch with. Be sure to touch base â&#x20AC;&#x201C; new opportunities may arise!

Leos like Taapsee will have a month of pleasant surprises. Already, opportunities seem to be landing at the doorstep by the dozen!

Virgo stars like Mammootty will find themselves in a rather pensive mood this month. It is a good time to reflect on the journey so far and examine newer opportunities that may present themselves.

Stars like Tammanaah will have a great month ahead with tons of new alliances and relationships coming to be.

March brings in a bit of a tough month for stars like Pooja Kumar, with lots of new obligations making demands on their schedule.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the birth month of stars like Puneet Rajkumar, and also a time for reflection on the highs and lows that life has brought on. Now might be a good time to renew broken ties.

M a rc h 2 0 1 3 | S o u t h s c o p e

March 2013 | Southscope

101

DECEMBER 2012

VOL 04 | ISSUE 03

PART 1 OF 2

Kannada Superstar

PUNEETH RAJKUMAR “History knows what my heroes and heroines were before and after my films”

DIRECTOR AMEER

on his forthcoming films, the TV show and managing a quick getaway in between…

“I am not dying to be friends with anyone”

AMALA PAUL

on relationships, puppy love episodes, that ‘special’ gift and of course, her movies

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