FILMS-CHANNELS

It is after the success of Slumdog Millionaire Music Maestro A.R Rahman has reached new pinnacle in his career. Now Rahman is all set to compose his magical Tunes for the next 23rd James Bond film which will be produced by Barbara Broccoli with the co-producer is Beach film fame McDougal. The film was produced with the joint effort of Danny Boyle. Danny Boyle is well aware about the talents of AR Rahman.

The DTH service of BIG TV group of the Reliance ADA Group, is expanding its channel with the addition of ten more new channels. These channels would be made available from June, according to a release of the company. The channels would include KBS and WB and English entertainement channels. The rest of the eight channels include leading regional channels in India; DD Podhigai (Tamil), NE TV (Telugu), India Vision (Malayalam), Star Jalsa (Bangla), Star Pravah (Marathi), Mahua (Bhojpuri), DD Kashmir (Urdu / Kashmiri), and TV99 (Rajasthani). BIG TV would be offering these channels across various subscription packs.

BY KARPAGAM THYAGARAJAN Univercell Vijay Awards in its third year has kicked off well and the audience participation has increased this time around. The publicity van ‘Rasigan Express’ that traveled across various districts of Tamil Nadu was received well. The year 2008, witnessed some great works in the Tamil film industry and the 118 films which were released during the year captivated most of the Tamil audiences. Like in the past, this year too viewers will get a chance to cast their vote for their Favorite stars under 5 Category - Favorite Hero, Favorite Heroine, Favorite Film, Favorite Director and Favorite Song. The Jury Members, Actor/Director Prathap Pothan, Popular Writer/Director/Producer Yugi Sethu, Film Critic/Cartoonist Madan and Lizzy Priyadarshan will be introduced on Sunday, May 10, 2009 at 2pm on Vijay TV. The Jury will discuss the various parameters under which they are to analyze the movies that would be nominated. They will speak about the 27 categories that are tak

BY KARPAGAM THYAGARAJAN This year’s biggest release, Sushi Ganesan’s Kandhasamy, will now release on June 12, more than a month after its initial release date. The film’s audio release will now take place on May 10. Kandhasamy is Tamil cinema’s first superhero movie and sees Vikram, Shreya and the late Raghuvaran in the lead roles. Producer S Dhanu has spent a small fortune in marketing the movie in a huge way through a series of slickly packaged trailers and teasers. Kandhasamy will be the first Indian film to release simultaneously in the major Indian languages as well as Italian, Spanish and English

The Sun TV Network has bagged the Tamil version rights of the Hindi language Police Police which recently received A from the Censor Board. The film with Prithviraj and Sri Ram in the lead and Kamalini Mukherjee as the heroine was cleared by the Censor Board. Manmohan has directed the film and Chandu is the producer. The film is produced in Tamil and Telugu. The post-production works are now going on. The film will be released in Telugu and Tamil on the same date. The producer and director claim that the film is quite different from the many police films that have been made so far. The film will enthrall all sections of the audience, claim the film makers.

The audio release of Cheran’s Pokkisham was held on Sunday, the 19th April at Kalaignar television studio in Chennai. The event was telecast live on TV and was attended by many of the industry’s top directors who expressed their faith in Cheran’s ability to mesmerize the audience with his creations. The CD of Pokkisham was formally released and two songs were screened for those present. Cheran spoke and said that the film is all about love. The story is set in the 70s and the love will have all the charm of that era; when love happened slowly but steadily where a strong emotional chord was formed between the two lovers even before they confessed their love to each other. The film will take us through the myriad emotions that two such lovers go through. Cheran plays the role of a marine engineer (Lenin) based in Calcutta and Padmapriya plays a Tamil literature student (Nithira) from Tamil Nadu. Their love takes form even as they are separated by distances and that is said to be the beau

The shooting of the Unnai Pol Oruvan, being produced in Tamil and Telugu, began at Hyderabad with Kamal Hassan and Venkatesh appearing in the films. The film is the remake of the Malayalam film Wednesday started its shootings at the Ramoji Rao Studios. In the film Venkatesh is playing the role of Mohanlal and Kamal does the same lead role in Tamil. Originally, Unnipol Oruvan was the title of a Tamil film produced three decades ago. Kamal’s daughter Shruthi Hassan is given the job of directing music. Earlier, the film bore the title as Thalaivan Oruvan Irukkiran and now it has changed. However, the launch of the UNNAIPPOL ORUVAN TOOK HERE IN CHENNAI ON FRIDAY WITH MOHAN LAL AND ULAGANAYAGAN KAMAL HASSAN HAVE DECIDED TO PUT THEIR VALIANT ACTING. THE INAUGURAL CEREMONY OF THE FILM TOOK ON FRIDAY. PHOTO COURTESY: THE HINDU.