Thalaivar 170 on Koodankulam protest - Mammooty in Jeyam Ravi film

Rana Daggubatti of Bahubaali and Dushara Vijayan have joined Thalaivar 170 is latest buzz. Already Faahad fasil and Manju Warrier are in the cast. Gananavel the director has planned the shooting in Chennai from September 19th for ten days. According to sources, the subject is on the shooting incident in Tuticorin and the Kudankulam protest by fishermen in Kanyakumari. A few scenes will be shot in Kanyakumari and moved to Thiruvanthapuram .

Mammootty is tipped to play the antagonist in Thani Oruvan 2 starring Jeyam Ravi and directed by his brother Mohan Raja. The first part had Aravind Swamy play the baddie. Mammootty was to play Vinayakan role in Jailer but Rajinikanth had reservations about getting into fight scenes with Mammootty and told the actor about it. In fact Mammootty had agreed only because of Rajinikanth asking him.

Jailer US collections inflated ? - Prasanna in Hindi Bigg Boss

As Jailer is said to have touched Rs 500 crores in 7 days worldwide according to media reports, a war of words is going in social media over the box office figures and the negative reviews as well as logic mistakes on the film. Mostly those who feel that Kamal’s Vikram is a better film dispute the Jailer figures and feel it is inflated beyond logic. Sacnik the reliable trade website puts the world-wide collection at Rs 420 crores and India net figure at Rs 225 crores and rest from overseas, Logic mistakes are that the character Jailer is said to be an honest cop who is retired and when he goes on a hunt of the criminals, he takes help from Dons . After taking help from these Dons, then why should he feel angry to know that his son is a corrupt cop and kill him ? Jailer shown supplying cigarettes to a jailed Don who makes explosives and just because he does not take money, he is honest. Another question is that Jailer’s wife is surprised to see the tough side of her husband and that too after retirement. When the whole world calls him Tiger during his service days, his wife has not known about it ? . One netizen said that probably the wife was married to him after he retired . Reviewer Blue Sattai Maran who ridiculed Rajinikanth for looking old has been slammed by YouTubers. Maran pulled a fast one on his critics by saying that a senior journalist invited him to attend a meeting with Rajinikanth to smoke the peace pipe and that box office trackers and other critics too are coming to a five star hotel and it will be on the eve of the day that Rajinikanth is leaving for Himalayas. Maran said that he put a condition that he would film the meeting in his mobile, He then tweeted that as some untoward incident happened he would release the video. Maran put out a memei vdeo of a film clip and had the last laugh. Maran also put a interview of Trichy Theatre owner Sridhar who says that the report that US collection are breaking records do not seem true as his relatives say that the first day show was full and tickets sold for $20 and third day the theatre had empty seats and was selling at $12. He said in Tamil Nadu the film crossed Rs 100 crores and actual figures will be known on August 21.

South Viewers of Hindi Bigg Boss hosted by Salman Khan were in for a surprise when Prasanna was seen in the show along with Jimmy Shergill and Elanna. The event was the teaser release of web series “Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond, a new series inspired by true events . Directed by Santosh Singh, the series boasts of an immensely talented ensemble cast that includes industry stalwarts such as Jimmy Shergill, Lara Dutta, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, The airstrike in Balakot a town in Pakistan by Indian Airforce is mired in controversy as western media showed photos to prove that the air strike caused no harm to anybody and to add insult, one of Indian pilot was captured by the Pakistan army and later handed back to India. On the Indian side due to an error a helicopter was shot down killing five of Indian army men. The web series is about the planning that went into the air strike, Prasanna who has acted in all South language films has the multilingual film King Of Kotha starring Dulquer Salmaan coming this month end. In the Hindi debut, Prasanna plays a cop and also has dubbed the Hindi dialogues.

Vedhalam remake Bhola Shankar is not a cringe film like Tamil - Chiru Director

Meher Ramesh justifying the cringe scenes featuring Chiranjeevi in Bhola Shankar trailer said that the original Tamil Vedhalam has ten time more cringe scenes and he had not much of them as had modified the screenplay and included more action as the Tamil film was centered around brother and sister relationship. This comment has angered Ajith fans who took to Twitter and slammed Ramesh. Chiranjevi too was upset with Ramesh comment. Public reactions to the trailor was mostly negative as many felt that Chiranjeevi at age of 68 is seen chasing a teen girl and acting like a college boy. The advance booking low in both Andhra States and in USA. Ramesh said that as Vedhalam is not on any OTT, it is fresh contett for Telugu audience. Producer Sunkara has been hauled to court by distributor of his earlier film Agent starring Akhil and Mammootty. Distributor claimed that Sunkara owes him Rs 30 crores as per an agreement over compensation for Agent loss. Bhola Shankar distribution was given to another distributor. Pre release biz of BS is Rs 90 crores. Ramesh to cool down Ajith fans said write in Twitter - I loved Veda lam when watched in 2015 and admired how the original story by @directorsiva sir showed strong bonding of a brother&sister, a sentiment that reflects with millions of people and wanted to show it our telugu audience. In 2009, I remade Ajith sir’s Billa with Darling Prabhas and now again I’m grateful for the opportunity to do Ajith Sir’s Action entertainer “Vedalam” as Megastar #BholaaShankar worldwide release in 2 days #BholaaShankarOnAug11

Not nepotism but politicians made Rajnikanth- Kamal to cringe

If nepotism rules Bollywood according to many, it is political dadagiri that rules Kollywood. If the Khans or Kapoors had said something similar to what Rajinikanth or Kamalhassan said, it would have been a breaking news in CNN, WION . Rajinikanth after the clash with PMK political party over depiction of smoking scenes in BABA - If I go to Mumbai, I am called a Madrasi. In Karnataka, I am a Tamizhan and here in Tamil Nadu, where I earned my bread and butter, I am a Kaannadiga. Where should I go?. Am not an Indian? Next shift to Kamal after the opposition by Muslim bodies (read as instigated by AIADMK) over Viswaroopam release.- If my nationality is questioned , then I think it is better to leave India and go to another country.

Shift to a function held by entire Kollywood to felicitate Karunanidhi on becoming the CM (It was not the first time he was becoming CM). Ajith goes on stage and says - Please do not compel anyone to attend such functions. Rajini stands up and claps. Cut to Udhaynidhi Stalin (actor - producer) who moves court to get a directive to ask the State committee to declare that the film he produced is serving the purpose of spreading the Tamil language. This enables the producer to get a tax exemption, a rule passed by his grandfather Karunanidhi and turned into a weapon by Jayalalithaa to deny tax sops to those having DMK links.  A Vijay starrer `Mersal’ which had dialogues against GST in the trailor , led to BJP warning distributors and theatres that if it was screened with the objectionable portions, they would face the music. DMK MLA J Anabazhagan ( who passed away recently due to Covid 19) said that he is willing to distribute it all over the State , without any changes. When Jayalalithaa was alive, Rajini in `Annamalai’ and later in `Padayappa’ had taken onscreen potshots at her. In the first instance, she was in power and brought in  a rule that Madras should not have film posters. In the second instance, she was not in power.

Vijay who did suffer from Jayalalithaa’s autocratic ways. It was mainly to help Jaya TV ,then owned by Sasikala . Earlier he had to do a volte-face as his father agreed to help AIADMK election campaign but did not do so and unluckily for him, Jayalalithaa came to power. Since then, he had been facing problems. After Jayalalithaa’s death, came Sarkar ( 2017). It stirred a hornets’ nest as it talked about Jayalalithaa’s freebie politics and to top it the antagonist in the film was Komalavalli(  a name given to Jayalalithaa by her grandmother) Predictably, it created a turbulent period in film trade as AIADMK was in power.

Now that Rajini and Kamal have entered politics and Stalin seems to be having a cordial relationship with both, the era of political muscle play in filmdom would hopefully end. When Karunanidhi was CM, Jayalalithaa alleged that Stalin’s son, Alagiri’s son and Sun TV were controlling the filmdom and arm twisting was rampant. Satellite rights were bought but no cash was given by Sun TV and after Jayalalithaa came back to power, a few cases and money reached those who were to get it. Now Sun TV is producing blockbusters and buying them too. Jaya TV and Luxe Cinemas of Sasikala have no backing of the ruling EPS- OPS group. BJP seems to harbor a grudge against Vijay and the IT raids were a part of it. The politicalisation of film trade bodies needs to be eradicated to bring in a transparent business scenario is what many films corporate who did business in Kollywood feel. Most of them have left in disgust.

As a journalist covering four South film industries, I can say that Kannada and Telugu filmdom does have a nepotism culture. To a little extent, it does exist in Malayalam. We all know about Prithiviraj who faced hardships in the initial days. Now, he has directed a film with Mohanlal as hero and latter’s man Friday as producer.  A few days back, a director spoke about Prithiviraj’s father Late Sukumaran  unofficially getting blacklisted from the industry. Sukumaran , whenever in Chennai, made it  a point to sit over a drink with me and hear about Kodambakkam news. His visits became rare and I heard that he was not called by producers. In one of his visits, I think to sell his flat in Gemini Parsn (don’t remember), I met him. I asked what the problem was. Laughingly he said – “I was on a flight to home. I did not get up and wish Joy. From that day onwards, my phone stopped ringing. Many think that I am an extravagant arrogant xxx. I have invested all my money safely enough for my family to live comfortably. Just because I am not doing films, do not stop meeting me. You ( my tribe) people have this habit of chasing only those in limelight. I don’t blame you. Your owner wants to sell his paper,”

As he rightly predicted , though I visited Trivandrum ( my home town) many times after that, it slipped my mind to pick up the phone and meet him for a drink.