CELEBS FACTORY

Close on the heels of winning her first-ever Olympic medal, looks like Indian boxer M.C Mary Kom now wants to have a taste of Bollywood as well.

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali recently announced his plans on making a biopic based on Mary's life. And now we hear straight from Mary that she wants to have a brief role in the film to be helmed by Omung Kumar Bhandula.

Speaking exclusively to media, Mary stated: "I would love to do a small role in the film. Maybe like that of the old lady from Titanic who comes back to tell her tale."

Last there were reports that the makers are busy hunting for an actor who could step into the Olympic winner's shoes.

Neha Dhupia is the latest to join the bandwagon of Bollywood actors shaking their leg for an item number with Tigmanshu Dhulia's sequel to his 2011 thriller drama 'Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster'.

Neha has shaken a leg to various songs during stage shows and this time she is thrilled to have her own full fledged item number.

"Yes...I am doing an item song in 'Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 2'. I can't talk much about it," said Neha Dhupia.

The item number will be shot in Jaipur next month.

In the sequel, Jimmy Shergill, Mahi Gill and Randeep Hooda will be reprising their roles from the first part, while the new additions to the sequel are Irrfan Khan and Soha Ali Khan.

Actor Kareena Kapoor feels that she was destined to be a part of director Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Heroine' and says the film is very close to her heart.

Bhandarkar first offered the lead role to Kareena but she couldn't do it due to date issues and it went to Aishwarya Rai. However, Aishwarya subsequently opted out due to pregnancy.

And the film once again landed in Kareena's lap and she said:

"Ever since I watched 'Chandni Bar', I wanted to work with Madhur Bhandarkar. Being a part of 'Heroine' was my destiny. The first time I couldn't do it because I didn't have dates and second time I was happy that the film came back to me. I had no second thoughts about it and agreed to do it. I had a wonderful experience working on this film and it is very close to my heart," said Kareena Kapoor.

Slated for a Sep 21 release, the film, which will focus on behind-the-scenes life of a heroine, also features Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda.

Karisma Kapoor is extremely proud of her sister Kareena Kapoor, whose career is shaping up pretty well and feels that "Heroine" will be a milestone in her acting journey.

The film's promos, including the item song "Halkat Jawani", has been released and Karisma says:

"It is a wonderful song and the promo of the film 'Heroine' is also looking very good. I am looking forward to seeing the movie."

"I feel that 'Heroine' will be Kareena's best performance. In fact, it will be the best," she added.

Coming out Sep 21, director Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Heroine' revolves around ups and downs in an actor's career. Kareena plays the title role and the cast also features Arjun Rampal and Randeep Hooda.

Asked when both sisters will be seen together on screen, Karishna said:

"We both have not yet come across any such script. If we get a nice script where both of us have a good role to play, then we will work together. Let's see who comes up with a nice script."

Jiiva is getting ready to start work on his project with Ravi K Chandran, who will be directing for the first time.

This flick titled Yaan is still to get a suitable heroine. There were reports of talks with leading Bollywood heroines but looks like Yaan would land in the laps of Kajal Aggarwal.

Kajal is among the topmost heroines in the South with films with all the happening heroes.

Talks are still on between the production side of Yaan and Kajal's team, and we can expect a confirmation soon. Ravi would do a narration of the script to Kajal in the first week of September once she is back from her shoots abroad.

Watch this space for an official confirmation on this.

Generally Tamil movies are released in its original version in states like Karnataka and Kerala, while in neighboring Andhra Pradesh, Tamil movies are dubbed. All biggies generally follow this trend.

Karthi's Alex Pandian would go for a Malayalam dubbed version and stand out from the crowd. This would be Karthi's first Malayalam dub as all his movies have been released in Kerala as straight Tamil features till now.

Anushka is his co-star in this movie and the film is fast nearing completion as it targets an October 12 release.

As reported earlier, actor Anushka has returned to Chennai and the shooting for Alex Pandian with Karthi has resumed. However, as per industry reports, the shooting of the film got into trouble when Anushka out of her personal interest had engaged a personal make-up woman to look sexy as ever.

According to reports, When Anushka brought her personal make up woman to the shooting spot of Alex Pandian, about 30 members of the make-up union from Chennai barged into the shooting spot and demanded the actor's personal makeup woman be sent away. 

Apparently the members of the make-up union were agitated that Anushka’s makeup person was not a member of the union. Also according to people present at the spot, they abused Anushka verbally and the actor left running away from the scene crying out of shock at the treatment meted out to her.

The shooting of the film resumed only after Karthi intervened and spoke to the union members and the makeup woman was sent out from the spot.

Kabir Khan's Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif starrer 'Ek Tha Tiger' is already the second biggest blockbuster in Bollywood history and is still only 2 weeks old at the box-office.

If reports are to be believed, the block buster success of 'Ek Tha Tiger' has resulted in discussions of Tamil and Telugu remakes of the film.

Generally Salman makes his films based on Southern hits but now it is the reverse as there is stiff competition to purchase the remake rights of 'EK Tha Tiger'.

Editor Mohan has supposedly purchased the Tamil remake rights of the film to be directed by his son Jayam Raja, given his expertise in handling remakes.

The shoes of Salman Khan as Tiger, the Indian RAW agent sent on a mission to Ireland is soon to be filled by one of the leading actors in Tamil Cinema. Rumors abuzz that the remake Raja is in talks with Vijay for another film after working together in Velayudham.

Official updates are awaited on this. Till then the guessing game would continue.

Kamal Haasan’s ambitious project 'Vishwaroopam' that even inspired Barrie Osborne to rope in the actor for his upcoming Hollywood project, is in its post-production.

The music for the film has been composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and is expected to release in September.

If reports are to be believed, the film will hit the screens in October, 2012.

It is touted that the film is being made for the global audience and a sequel for the film is also almost ready for its release after the first part.

Directed and produced by Kamal Haasan, the film stars Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Rahul Bose, Nassar and Jaideep Ahlawat.

Actor Shriya Saran is all excited with her ambitious role in the upcoming Period-fantasy-Kannada-Tamil bilingual film, 'Chandra' directed by Roopa Iyer.

It has to be recalled that the director of the film had earlier roped in Divya Spandana and had even signed her for the role. However Divya was dropped from the film later as she unable to co-operate with the director and showed less interest during the shoot skipping the Kalaripayattu training classes that were required for the stunts performed by her character.

The director then zeroed in on Shriya after considering other actors like Dia Mirza, Amala Paul, Amrita Rao and Aindrita Ray for the prestigious role that it is of a princess of last generation. The film revolves around the princess and the love story in her life that has been shot at beautiful temples in Karnataka and an erected palace set in Mysore.

A thorough profession of an actor that Shriya is, trained in Kalaripayattu for the stunts performed by the princess and the fight sequences in the film. These sequences required a lot of dedication and Shriya has been putting in a lot of hard work, much to her director Roopa Iyer's delight.


It will be remembered that actor Genelia also had trained Kalaripayattu for the role of a princess she played in Santosh Shivan's Urumi, that did wonders for Genelia and got rave reviews.

Shriya must be keeping her fingers crossed for 'Chandra' to make her the darling of critics and fans alike.

UTV Motion Pictures's 'Mugamoodi' is about Anand (Jiiva), a man who turns into a vigilante to fight corruption and injustice for a better society. Directed by Mysskin and starring Jiiva, Narain and Pooja Hegde in the lead, the K-town Superhero is awaiting release on August 31, 2012.

Actor Narain, Mysskin's protagonist from his previous movies like Chithiram Pesuthadi and Anjathe has been roped in to play the remorseless villain 'Angusamy/Dragon' in the film. While 'Angusamy' is a calm and composed martial arts teacher, his alter ego 'Dragon' is the brutal villain who goes on a murder spree.

"Dragon is evil through and through. You would've never seen such a terrible fierce monster in Tamil cinema before. There is not one single aspect about him that is good and I believe that the role would add an interesting shade to my career," said actor Narain revealing about his role in the film that he expects to put his career in Tamil cinema back on track.


The actor mentioned that he cherishes his experiences with Jiiva and Mysskin during the making of the film and added that he would never play a villain again in the near future atleast till he is more established in the Tamil industry.

It’s known that Vikram is cool and easy going. But director A.L Vijay has an image of a serious person. But in a recent interview Lakshmi Rai revealed how naughty the director and the actor are.

After finishing a shot for Thaandavam, Lakshmi Rai had casually asked Vikram how many heroines he has in Thaandavam. Vikram took this chance to play a prank on the Lakshmi and showed her pictures he took with Reemma Sen and Shriya Saran in his mobile phone to answer her question.

After seeing those pictures, Lakshmi Rai panicked and complained to Vikram that she wasn’t even informed that there are so many actresses in Thandavam and that she would not have accepted the film if she had known about this earlier. Acting very surprised Vikram called Vijay and inquired about the issue very seriously. Taking a cue from the actor, Vijay played along. An upset Lakshmi Rai kept bashing the director, until Vikram and Vijay started laughing. That’s when she understood that the duo had played a prank on her and those photos were taken during different shoots.

Ileana D'Cruz is one of the hottest stars of the South Indian film industry. Her latest release Julayi is not only rocking the Andhra Pradesh theaters but also the theaters in Tamil Nadu with a record breaking performance.

The slender Goan beauty with a sexy body to die for, is not just adored for her perfect sandclock physique but is also for her mellifluous voice.

Being a capable singer herself, Ileana has always been drawn to good music and has expresses her desire to croon a number in one of her upcoming films.

Looks like Ileana is all set to become a musical Rockstar.

Sheela was a prominent child artiste in Tamil cinema a decade back with movies like Nanda, Poove Unakkaga and Dum Dum Dum. She later graduated to becoming a lead heroine.

The actor with not much success migrated to other language movies particularly Telugu, and showed that she can be glamorous too. These glam roles in big projects earned her some eyeballs and now this young heroine is ready for a relaunch in Tamil.

This time, she wishes to act only in big projects unlike her earlier homely roles in small Tamil films.

Sheela has even done a glamorous photoshoot in her efforts to bag some biggies.

Salt N' Pepper the Malayalam hit that starred Lal, Shweta Menon, Mythili, Asif Ali & Baburaj was among the recent Malayalam flicks that made a mark for its take on the modern day youth.

The romantic comedy had Food playing an important role in the story with the tagline of the film being Oru Dosa Undakkiya Katha ("The story born out of a Dosa"). The film had a solid run at the box-office and also bagged the Kerala state awards.

Now the movie audiences across the nation would also get to experience this flick. All thanks to Prakash Raj who has procured the remake rights for Tamil, Hindi and Telugu versions of the film to be produced through his production house Duet Movies.

Prakash Raj has always been known for producing meaningful cinema and Salt and Pepper is the next step in his quest.

Lakshmi Rai the sultry looking actor has been slowly rising up the success ladder in the past year with blockbusters such as Mankatha and Kanchana.

Lakshmi Rai has a good reputation in the Malayalam films as well and is considered as a Lucky Mascot by many producers within the industry.

The actor who was last seen in the Telugu hit 'Adhinayakudu' opposite Nandamuri Balakrishna left her fans behind asking for after she did what she does best looking glamorous on screen. 

Lakshmi Rai seems to be in no hurry in signing all the projects that come her way and currently has A.L Vijay's Thaandavam in hand co-starring Vikram, Anushka, Amy Jackson and Jagapathi Babu.

In this scenario, the curvaceous damsel bagged another biggie, when Actor/Director Raghava Lawrence honored his word and kept his promise to rope Lakshmi Rai for Kanchana Part 2, the sequel of Muni (2007) and Kanchana (2011).

On November 16th 2011, a phenomenon called Kolaveri di happened and catapulted Dhanush into dizzying heights of superstardom. Now he and Anirudh are back with a new single that has been featured in a commercial for Tata Nano extolling the virtues of this compact car.

The ad shows Dhanush avoiding parking problems and even saving a young girl's life when her ambulance is stuck in traffic using his compact car to expertly weave its way through the jam.

The tune is catchy and just after few days of its release, the video has reached 810,762 views on YouTube.

Anirudh, who seems to be a lucky mascot for Dhanush is also seen briefly in the commercial. Will the duo recapture the magic of Kolaver di again?

Only time will tell.

Vishal is currently busy with Sundar C's Madha Gaja Raja (MGR) in which he also has Santhanam for company. 

The actor credits the comedian for making his shoots such a fun-filled affair and says that he doesn't feel like taking a day-off from the shoot because of Santham's pranks and sensibility on the sets.

Vishal is in awe of the Santhanam's one liners that he says with a straight face and even thanked Santham for making the sets lively with his presence. 

"Thanks to Santhanam for adding a few more years to my life span," said actor Vishal who added that the comedian is good for his health. 

Sundar C is also known for his terrific humor sense and we can expect a laugh riot with Santhanam in tow.

The pictures of the young music director, Anirudh Ravichandran and Andrea have gone viral on the internet.

Anirudh has expressed his disappointment over this and has revealed that someone had taken the photos from his iphone and leaked it on net. He also pointed out that it was his personal life and making it public would affect his life and hurt his parents’ feelings.

Andrea on the other hand, has also admitted that they both were in a relationship a long time ago.  

Career wise, the youngster has David, Ethir Neechal and Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi’s untitled project in hand.

Yash Chopra, the star-maker, is back to direction after a gap of 8 years with SRK, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. The first teaser of the much-awaited film released with Salman Khan's Ek Tha Tiger.


The teaser begins with a note by Yash Chopra which says:

    "Films have been my only passion in life.
    I've always been proud of making films
    and will continue taking pride in all my films."                                                                            

                                                                            -   Yash Chopra

The teaser then shows Yash Chopra behind the camera and proceeds with the clippings of his various unforgettable films. His 50 golden years in direction saw films like Dhool Ka Phool, Waqt, Daag, Deewaar, Kabhi Kabhie, Silsila, Chandni, Lamhe, Darr, Dil To Pagal Hai, Veer Zaara and many other movies.


 This Diwali, the magic of Yash Chopra's romantic films would be revived with this yet-untitled musical film.

The teaser introduces the main characters - Shahrukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma. Shah Rukh is seen in this kind of avatar after a long time. Katrina and Anushka look fresh. Yash Chopra surely knows how to present his heroines in the best possible way.

The film's music is composed by AR Rahman and the lyrics are penned by Gulzar.

The movie's title continues to be a mystery as the teaser wraps up with a tagline - A Yash Chopra romance. The film will hit the theatres on November 13 this year.

Southern sirens have a track record for doing well in Bollywood.
 

Vyjayanthimala, Hema Malini and Sridevi are yesteryear heroines who made it big in Bollywood. Recently Asin has joined these ladies with her clever career moves and Taapsee. Kajal Agarwal, Tamannah, Shruthi Haasan and Ileana are other famous actors down South who look promising to make it big in Bollywood.

Ileana, the slender hottie from Goa joins the Bollywood league by making her debut with Barfi featuring Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra.

The trailer of 'Barfi' is out and Ileana has made an impact already. She has also landed a big project with Shahid Kapoor to be directed by Rajkumar Santhoshi.

Looks like Ileana is all set to give the Bollywood Queen Bees some tough competition!

There have been gossips spreading like wild fire about Trisha's supposed closeness with Telugu actor Rana Daggubati.

But the gorgeous actor has denied these emphatically revealing Rana to be her good friend who has been close to her family for the past 10 years.

Trisha reiterated that she won't go behind marriage and as and when she meets the right person, she would accede to it.

The actor who was recently honored for completing a decade in cinema is currently busy with three movies and is also nearing a major landmark of 50 films.

Jayam Ravi and Trisha are getting back together in Boologam after their superhit Unakkum Enakkum.

Directed by Kalyana Krishnan, Boologam is being canned in a massive urban set, erected on a 50-acre land.

Jayam Ravi has not only taken up the role of an action hero but also plays a major part in the comic portions of the film.

Trisha, after a long time is starring as a college girl in this entertainer with Prakash Raj as the bad guy being sketched as a different role, says the director.

Southern siren Shriya Saran sports a lacy lingerie and adorns the cover of the August 2012 issue of popular Men's magazine Maxim. She even went ahead posing topless for a wide-spread that has grabbed the targetted eye balls in the North, where the magazine is comparatively famolus.

The glamdoll has supposedly made this move to draw attention and one would admit that Shriya didn't fail at her intention. 

The actor has filmed for her part in Deepa Mehta's 'Midnight's Children' and is also a part of 'Zilla Ghaziabad' that  is awaiting its release.

Presently the actor is busy shooting for her Tamil-Kannada bilingual Chandra, starring Ganesh Venkatraman, Prem Kumar, Sukanya, Vivek and Sumithra.