Kamal Haasan double standards on Draft Cinematograph Act

Kamal Haasan kept silent on the draft that gave Manmohan Singh Ministry to be the sole authority to ban a film after being censored. Today he is opposing the draft circulated by Modi ministry that seeks to have the discretionary powers to recall a film after being certified by CBFC. In 2013, when Kamal Haasan's Viswaroopam was banned by Tamil Nadu Government, the issue prompted Manmohan Singh ministry to appoint an empowered committee to look into the issue of censored films facing ban. Based on the report, the Union ministry put out a draft asking public to give their views.

As those in the I&B ministry point out that the actor's silence was probably because the Union ministry sided him in the fight against Jayalalithaa led AIADMK ministry  had led him to remain silent, Other critics of the present draft too had kept quiet  shows that the  pseudo stance and the presence of Javed Akhtar in the panel could be a factor to silence them. As the officials point out that the present draft gives powers to Union ministry to recall a censored film and have it re- examined, the 2013 draft advocated for the Central Government to have sole power to ban a film.

Below is a report published in Livemint.com  22 Oct 2013,

The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has issued a draft of the Cinematograph Act 2013, proposing that the central government should be solely empowered to suspend the exhibition of a film, as opposed to state governments and other local authorities.

No order of suspension of exhibition of any film shall be passed by any state government or the administration of a Union territory save and except an order passed by the central government as provided for in this Section," said the draft.

The Bill comes after the empowered committee under the chairmanship of Mukul Mudgal, a retired chief justice of the high court of Punjab and Haryana, submitted its report to MIB earlier this month.

The committee was constituted in February by the central government to examine issues of censorship arising out of a ban imposed by the state government of Tamil Nadu on the Kamal Hassan starrer Vishwaroopam. The ban was later lifted.

According to a statement released by the ministry, the purpose of making the Bill public was to invite feedback on the proposed legislation.

The members of the committee that proposed the changes also included lyricist Javed Akhtar and former chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification Sharmila Tagore.

 

 

Director of LTTE Prabhakaran film tweet on Nayanthara creates a storm

 

The tweet coming from Kittu the director of Methagu, film on the childhood of LTTE Prabhakaran has created a storm. Many are asking whether this how Kittu who did a film on the legendary revolutionary thinks about women. The use of Geethasaram is another sore point. Kittu had earlier got into trouble over a tweet about Periyar. Kittu has since blocked his Twitter account. 

Kamal Haasan in Vetrimaaran direction

 

Actor Kamal Haasan and director Vetrimaaran, two National award winners are coming together for a film produced by Producer- Financier Anbu Chezhian.  In a related development, High Court has appointed a judge as arbitrator to the dispute between Producers Lyca Productions and director Shankar over the completion of Indian 2, It has Kamal Hassan in the lead role. 

The news of Vetrimaaran- Kamal coming together has been received with glee by the fans of both the stalwarts.  Both of them share the same ideology and expected to  come up with a novel theme. Recently Actor Raghava Lawrence acting in Vetrimaaran story was announced. Vetrimaaran is currently busy with Surya's Vaadivaasal' and a film with Soori.  Kamal Haasan  has asked Lokesh Kanagraj ( director of Vijay's Master) to start rolling his film Vikram. This follows the delay in start of Indian 2 shoot.

On the downside, industry sources are skeptical about announcements that feature Kamal as hero. Already Sabash Naidu ,,Thalaivan Irukiraan, The Tooth of Buddha ( Myskkin)  have been dropped. Indian 2 ran into trouble after Kamal developed allergy to prosthetics makeup. Later an accident that turned fatal to some crew members put the lid on the shoot.

Kamal before joining political campaign had said that Thalaivan Irukiraan would be his swan song after Indian 2. He shifted his goal and announced Vikram and now the teaming up with Vetrimaaran shows that he has no plans to take up politics as full time.

The High Court appointed Retd Justice Banumathi as arbitrator and asked her to talk to Lyca and director Shankar and give a report. Shankar had moved on to direct a film with Ram Charan in Telugu and Ranveer in Hindi. Lyca wanted the director to first finish Indian 2 before going to other projects.

As Kamal's political party and himself drew a blank, there were reports that he was to do the remake of Drishyam 2 as he done the first part. This said to be a quickie before the shoot of Indian 2 starts. Kamal is now also put Vikram pre- production work on top gear. Till now as per reports in the media, there are five top actors including Fahad Fazil and Vijay Sethupathi who are playing baddies in Vikram . Vetrimaaran who assisted Director Balu Mahendra had said that Nayakan was the inspiration to him to turn director.

A tweet about Visaranai from Kamal : 

Jan 30, 2016 

@ikamalhaasan

Praising Vetrimaran's movie VisaaraNai only in Tamil is limiting an International film to parochial borders. A must watch.

“Body is shivering. Just came out from Vetrimaran's "Visaaranai" Brilliant work. Sinked in heart deeply. Congrats to the entire team..!”

Kamal Haasan

@ikamalhaasan

·

Jan 30, 2016

@ikamalhaasan

Praising Vetrimaran's movie VisaaraNai only in Tamil is limiting an International film to parochial borders. A must watch.

.

Star Vijay new reality show Comedy Raja Kalakal Rani on Sunday's 1.30 PM

STAR VIJAY has launched a brand-new comedy reality show titled Comedy Raja Kalakkal Rani on 27 June 2021 airing every Sunday at 1.30 pm. In this innovative show 10 comedy duos compete through various rounds to win cash prize and a coveted title. Star Vijay’s most prominent comedians will pair with other popular comedy stars of the channel to fight in a ‘humorous’ way to beat the other pairs. One best ‘kalakkal’ pair would be chosen every week. Based on their performances the least points pair would get evicted in a pyramid structure competition points table. Top 4 pairs who sustain and win through the hard-core rounds would enter the grand finale.

Following are the most popular and viewers favorite personalities participating on Comedy Raja Kalakkal Rani. 

Pugazh – Archana, Bala – Rithika, Ramar – Deepa, Nisha – Raju, TSK – Sunitha,

Yogi – Shabnam, Sathish – Gayathri, Vinothbabu – Pranika, Jayachandran –

Archana, Rajavelu – Dharsha Gupta.

The judges for the show are Madurai Muthu, actor Aishwarya and Baba Baskar. Anchors are Priyanka Deshpande and Rakshan.

Comedy Raja Kalakkal Rani airs every Sunday at 1.30 pm on STAR VIJAY.

After Padmini ,will it be Nayanthara who be the Mollywood heroine to rule Bollywood ?

Nayanthara is to play the lead opposite Shah Rukh Khan and it is certain says sources in director Atlee's camp. If this happens, then Nayanthara will be the second actress from Mollywood who would be starring  opposite a Superstar Bollywood hero. The only heroine to do so was Late Padmini who acted as heroine opposite the the then Bollywood top draw- Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Ashok Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar.

Though many Malayalam actresses have acted in Bollywood and some are still continuing to do so, it was Padmini who was paired with the top draws of Bollywood in the 60's onwards. No heroine who started ou tfrom Mollywood has graduated to being the heroine to any top Bollywood hero. Many acted with the heroes but not as the main lead. Today, Vidya Balan who is a Malayali is on the top rungs of Bollywood. She however did not have her roots in Malayalam films. Todays Nithya  Menen, Priyamani and many other's are in Bollywood but none have ever been heroine to any of the Khans who rule Bollywood. Previously too Shobana and Revathi too acted in Bollywood films.

Padmini and her sisters known as Travancore sisters and coming from Thriruvanthapuram found their way from Malayalam films to Tamil- Telugu and Padmini finally made her mark as the RK heroine.  From Kollywood, the actress to make her dominant presence was  Vyjayanthimala, Sreedevi  and JayaPrada while Tamil girls like Hema Malini- Rekha  who did not have any Kollywood roots ,held sway. 

Mayanthara who started with Malayalam films after becoming top draw in Tamil- Telugu still works for films in her mother tongue. She recently acted in Nizhal opposite Kunchacko Boban ( now steaming on OTT). In Tamil, she is in Raainikanth's forthcoming film `Annaatthe' and Chiranjeevi film ( remake of Lucifer). She is also a producer and backs arthouse films. Currently she has signed a Malayalam film Paatu ( Song) directed by Premam fame director Alphone Puthran. It has 11 songs and Fahad Fazil plays the male lead.

Today, she commands a solo draw at the Box Office. Atlee who has worked with Nayanthara in Vijay's Bigil had suggestted her to SRK. Atlee and Passion studios together are producing two films with Nayanthara. One of them is directed by a debutant and has signed Kicha Sudeep for a negative role. She has signed two films for Dream Warriors of S R Prabhu. She and her BF Vignesh directed film is almost complete. It has also Vijay Sethupathi and Samantha in the cast.

Kerala's first Rs 100 cr film Marakkar to face litmus test

Kerala's first Rs 100 cr budget film Marrakkar - Lion of Arabian Sea is also the first to announce the release date - August 12th, Will it give profits to the producer who has waited for more than a year to release it? How will the markets outside Kerala receive  it ? Will Kerala market and Onam season alone help the producer to recover his money ?. These questions will get an answer and if positive it will further lead to more projects. At present, another Rs 100 cr + project from Kerala is Barroz, a period film with Mohanlal ( also hero in Marakkar) who directs and plays the protagonist.

As previous Eid was a washout with no release, film trade looks to Independence Day- Dusheera ( Puja in South) and Deepavali holidays to release films in theaters. As far as North markets are concerned, Marakkar will see less screens as Akshaay Kumar's Bell Bottom ( July end - August start) onward and next his Sooryavanshi, John Abraham’s Satyameva Jayate 2 and Hollywood film Fast and Furious 9 are fixed for release.

The Tamil- Telugu markets as of now have no big pan Indian film release in August and so the screening of Marakkar in these regions should not be as big a problem. In Tamil, the big ticket films Annatthe ( Rajinikanth) is scheduled for November Diwali release. Before that only Sivakarthikeyan's Doctor, Vijay Sethupathi's Laabam and Arun Vijay's Border  and maybe Simbu's  Maya might release in August. If it does than Marakkar will see less screens in Tamil Nadu. In September, Balakrishna's Akahanda in AP- TS markets is scheduled and KGF 2 the Kannada film with pan Indian appeal is expected to come around this time. Before that there seems to be no biggies for release.

The Kerala market has been made safe by a settlement between three main players whose films are ready to release. Marakkar will have a three weeks free run ( no other movie will release) and then next will be Nivin Pauly's Thuraimukhom and Dulquar Salman's Kurup. These two will have a three week gap in release dates. The theaters - distributors of Kerala have reached a pact on this.

The trade is watching whether Kerala box office alone can prop up Marakkar. The highest grosser was Odiyan produced by Antony ( also Marakkar producer) with Mohanlal. It grossed around Rs 54 crores worldwide gross and after distribution commissions gave Rs 30- 35 crores to the producer. It had close to 3000 screens release. The budget was Rs 50 crores. This was in Jan 2018.

Moving back to  October 2016, PuliMurugan with Mohanal as hero collected Rs 152 crores gross and a profit of Rs 90-95 crores after commission and taxes. The budget was just Rs 25 crores !!!. Marakkar like PuliMurugan is expected to be  big on content as Priyadarshan- Lal combo has worked very well. The films that worked for the combo were comic  capers.  Priyan has not worked on a period film on such a big scale. A lot rides on Marakkar's box office for Kerala film industry.

Raghava Lawrence in Vetrimaaran story and Durai Senthil Kumar direction

 Raghava Lawrence deviating from his Kanchana style fulms is to act in National award winner Vetrimaaran's story and screenplay. It will be directed by  Durai Senthil Kumar and produced by 5 Star Kathiresan. This hit combo of the Vetrimarran- Kathireasan coming back after 10 years.

Vetrimaaran’s directorial Polladhavan and Aadukalam that swept six National awards and other prestigious awards were produced by S.Kathiresan of Five Star Films.  Vetrimaaran too produced award-winning films like Udhayam, Kaaka Muttai and Visaaranai- of which the latter knocked the doors of Oscar Awards. These successful banners have now joined hands for a film titled Adhigaaram that has story and screenplay by Vetrimaaran. This film marks the collaboration of Vetrimaaran and Kathiresan after 10 years.

The film will have pan-Indian star Raghava Lawrence who is also the lead in Kathiresan production and directorial ‘Rudhran’. Durai Senthilkumar who has directed blockbusters like Ethirneechal, Kaaki Sattai, Kodi and Pattasu takes over the directional responsibilities. The film that is being made on a grand scale will be shot in Malaysia for 50 days and then across India. The movie will go on floors later this year. The rest of the cast and crew will be announced soon.