CELEBS FACTORY

Coincidentally, Harris Jayaraj is the composer for both the films that are highly expected to release this year.

Little-known Tamil actor Dhanya Balakrishna, who hails from Bangalore, has become an "issue" between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu after she allegedly hurt Tamil sentiment by posting certain messages on her Facebook account.

Dhanya's facebook post regarding the IPL playoffs has almost cost the budding actor her promising career in Kollywood.

The actor's remarks ignited a fierce backlash on social networking sites, rattling the tinsel world damsel so much that she has decided to shun the Tamil film industry for good.

After the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) entered the playoffs, the young star gave vent to her feelings at local team Royal Challengers Bangalore's defeat turning out to be a gain for CSK.

Referring to the decades-old Cauvery river water sharing dispute she wrote,

The shoot for Thuppakki, starring Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal is on full swing.

A.R Murugadoss is using everything that is only the best in the industry, starting from the lead actors to the technicians.

The latest news is that the ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan, who recently joined the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers, is not using the usual 35 MM camera to shoot the film.

It has been recently evealed that he is exploiting the latest ARRI digital technology that was introduced later last year.

Even the Hollywood technicians, who are usually the first to introduce latest techs in the industry, have just started using this technology.

The makers have assured that the picture quality in this film will be something nobody has experienced yet. The film is expected to hit the screens during the last quarter of the year.

Actor Vijay has crooned a number composed by Harris Jayaraj for the A.R Murgadoss directed Thuppaki.

The entire cast and crew are in love with the peppy number rendered by Vijay and has flown to Bangkok to shoot the song in some stunning locales, to make sure they do justice to the song.

Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal are dancing up a storm under the tutelage of Bollywood choreographers and Vijay already famed for his dancing skills has reportedly done an outstanding job.

Insiders swear that the song is going to generate a huge craze across the country!

While on one hand the girls from south are craving to go and settle in Bollywood, this beautiful babe from North is thinking the other way round.

Yes! Here we are talking about Kajal Aggarwal, the latest sensation of Telugu and Tamil film industry.

Kajal Aggarwal, who recently tasted success through ‘Businessman’ pairing opposite India’s 5th Most Desirable Man in 2012, Mahesh Babu, feels happy and is more satisfied down South when compared to Bollywood.

Despite making a wonderful debut through the super hit film ‘Singam’ costarring Ajay Devgan in Bollywood, Kajal was mulling over Murugadoss’s film with Tamil superstar Vijay and decided to call off the offer from Yashraj Films to be directed by Manish Sharma costarring Shahid Kapoor.

Kajal's close associates revealed that she had taken this decision because she is more interested to do films in South than in Bollywood.

Director A.R Murugadoss recently shot for a famous washing soap brand with actor Ganesh Venkatraman as the brand ambassador.

Sources say that the director who was pleased with the actor’s performances in his earlier films ‘Unnai Pol Oruvan’ and ‘Abhiyum Naanum’ personally chose Ganesh to play the role of a young district collector in the ad film which revolves around the relationship between a son and a father. In the ad, Ganesh plays the son of a humble potter, who goes on to become a collector and makes his father proud.

Ganesh was jubilant about working with Murugadoss and says, “It was a wonderful experience working with Murugadoss sir. He is extremely down to earth and chilled out. We chatted up on a lot of things during shooting”.

Apparently Murgadoss had seen the trailer of Ganesh’s upcoming film Pani Thuli and he complimented about it. Ganesh goes on to add that Murugadoss liked his action stunts in Pani Thuli and wanted to know how he had performed them.

Ganesh is happy that 2012 has started on such a good note and is waiting for the release of Pani Thuli.

There has been talk about a Bollywood remake of A.R Murugadoss's film 'Ramana' with Vijaykanth for quite some time now.

After all the speculation, it seems that something concrete is finally happening. Sanjay Leela Bhansali loved the film and had purchased the remake rights for it.

Bhansali then approached Shah Rukh Khan for the role and word is that SRK loved the role. A.R Murugadoss has been asked to wield the directorial baton again and apparently he has agreed since he is keen to work with SRK.

Although the title for the upcoming Vijay - A.R Murugadoss film is decided as Thupaakki, it seems the same title will see some trouble in Telugu.

Thupaakki is a bilingual and according to sources close to the director, the title Thupaakki is already registered with the Telugu Films Chamber by Jinka Harish Babu.

Also, it seems that Jinka Harish Babu is unwilling to part with the title 'Thupaakki' as his movie is already underway.

According to Harish Babu, his film focuses on terrorism and he wants the title 'Thupaakki' that somewhat describes the storyline.

While there are no immediate announcements from the Murugadoss stable about the title trouble, it's likely that Murugadoss will want to buy out Thupaakki from Harish.

Watch this space for an update on Vijay's Thupaakki with director A.R Murgadoss

In the A.R Murugadoss film, Vijay is playing a Mumbai dada, reports some sources in Kollywood. Though this fact has not been confirmed either by A.R Murugadoss or Vijay, the news has started to make rounds.

The film has not been titled yet and A.R Murugadoss is expected to announce the title any time now. However, the speculations on Vijay’s role in this film have started to make rounds.

As per some reports in Kollywood, Vijay’s role in the movie will be similar to that of Kamal Haasan’s in Nayagan.

Yet another news that we hear on this project is that the film will begin in Tiruchendur and it will show Vijay’s transition as dada in Mumbai.

It can’t get any bigger than this for the Punjabi lass!

Yes, we’re talking about Kajal Aggarwal, who’s got a prize catch —- Ilaya Thalapathy Vijay's next film directed by A.R. Murugadoss.

Though several names including Priyanka Chopra and Priya Anand were tossed around, the opportunity to romance Vijay on-screen has fallen into Kajal’s lap.

Sources say that the leggy lass, who’s on a high after her Bollywood debut hit Singham with Ajay Devgan, was on cloud nine after signing the film on Tuesday with mass hero Vijay.

Kajal Aggarwal is the only lucky girl to sizzle with two K’town biggies simultaneously — Suriya in Maatran and Vijay in this untitled flick. Her Tollywood career is also looking up with two films — one with Mahesh Babu and another with her Magadheera costar Ram Charan Teja.

A source reveals that the movie produced by Vijay’s dad S.A. Chandrashekar, is set in Mumbai and will be shot extensively in the business capital.

Reportedly, the crew will start rolling from December 1 with ace cinematographer Santhosh Sivan handling the camera and Harris Jayaraj composing music for the film.

The followers of Buddhism have raised objections towards 7am Arivu over the facts provided about the monk 'Bodhi Dharma' in the movie.

Despite being a well-made science fiction film in the Tamil film industry, Surya's 7am Arivu has sparked a controversy regarding the portrayal of Bodhi Dharma, a Pallava prince who migrated to China and became the Shaolin master.

Buddhist Teacher Babu T Raghu has said that the depiction of Bodhi Dharma in 7am Arivu is inaccurate. For an instance, the monk travelled to China, when he was 150 yearsold but in the recently released film, it has been portrayed, as if he left Kanchipuram at his young age with six-pack abs. He further claims that it is an insult to their community and has objected those scenes.

The Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary professor Bikku Bodhi Bala says that it is believed that Bodhi Dharma was one of the seven monks, who left to China from Tamil Nadu between the 2nd and 13th century. He, however refuses A.R Murgadoss' portrayal of the Bodhi Dharma's death in 7am Arivu as the monk breathed his last in Tamil Nadu after being resurrected from death in China.

Meanwhile, historians claim that Bodhi Dharma left Kanchipuram to propagate Buddhism and that he was known only for his expertise in martial arts and not for any skills on medical science scrutinizing 7am Arivu that glorifies the monk as a Tamilian without researching his contribution to the community.

All in all, irrespective of whether Bodhi Dharma's depiction is accurate or false, the audience have loved Suriya's performance as the monk in the first twenty minutes of 7am Arivu.

Director A.R Murugadoss is gearing up for his next project with Ilayathalapathy Vijay. The filmmaker, who received mixed response from both audience and the critics for his recently released 7am Arivu, is all set to start his next biggie in Thiruchendur, Thoothukudi district.

The makers of the film have decided to launch the forthcoming multilingual movie at the Thiruchendur Murugan temple, one of the six abodes of Lord Muruga.

The story of the movie will start from the seaside and then moves on to Mumbai, where the major part of the movie will be shot. It is said to be a gangster film and is touted to be an action-packed film.

Sources say that the movie will have two female leads.

Kingfisher model Angela Johnson has been signed to be one of the leading ladies and Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra is being considered to be the other. The movie is produced by Vijay's father S.A Chandrasekhar and Santosh Sivan is reported to have signed as the cinematographer of this upcoming movie that is still under wraps.

Among all the accolades and appreciations that actor Suriya had received for 7am Arivu, he cherishes the admiration of his father and veteran actor Sivakumar the most.

"My dad watches all my films and reviews my performance with me. However after watching 7am Arivu, he drove all the way and hugged me, looked at my eyes and said that I made him proud" revealed the actor.

Suriya, who is thrilled with the phenomenal response for 7am Arivu said, "7am Arivu is the biggest hit of my career," adding that "K V Anand’s Maatran is a commercial entertrainer and his next with Hari (supposedly a sequel to Singham) will be announced in a couple of weeks."

Director A.R Murugadoss was recently quizzed by the media persons if he is expecting an award for 7am Arivu.

To this, the director had replied that he is not sure of the yardstick that the selection panel is using to bestow the awards and wondered if only stars that act as mentally challenged will be selected for the coveted awards.

This gave rise to a thought that Murugadoss was teasing Vikram as he is one star who has acted in more number of films that show him as a mentally challenged person.

However, Murugadoss has put an end to this rumor that he teased Vikram by making such a statement. The director added that he holds Vikram in high regard and did not tease him.

There was a call to ban 7am Arivu in Sri Lanka because the film had some dialogues on the lack of Tamil liberation movement that created uproar in Sri Lanka.

Following this opposition, the producer of 7am Arivu, Udhayanidhi Stalin, decided to delete the offending scenes so that it would not hurt the film’s success in that country.

The protestors are now contended that the dialogues have been removed and have allowed the film to be screened.

7am Arivu directed by A.R. Murugadoss has Suriya and Shruti Haasan starring as the leads with music composed by Harris Jayaraj.

Noted director Thangar Bachan has lauded 7am Arivu so much that he has penned an open letter to Red Giant Movies Udhayanidhi Stalin for producing the film.

Thangar Bachan in his letter had said that only few films bring honor to Tamilians and 7am Arivu is one among them.

According to the director, the film has made every Tamilian sit up and take notice of their glorious past.

Thangar Bachan, on the discussion about the film’s success, said that the collections at the box office, are largely the concern of the people who are going to benefit from the profits that is the producers and distributors and it is not for the movie buffs who only need to enjoy the film.

7am Arivu and Velayutham collections for the first five days have been declared by trade sources.

It is reported that 7am Arivu grossed about 40.25 crores from October 25th and Velayutham has grossed over 40 crores from October 26th onwards.

Both Suriya and Vijay are excited over these figures because the competition is still neck to neck and looks like this competition will end in a draw.

Velayutham has Vijay, Hansika and Genelia in the lead while in 7aum Arivu it is Suriya and Shruti Haasan as the lead pair.

Kollywood saw a massive clash between two big movies that were released during Diwali. One was the much-hyped AR Murugadoss’s 7am Arivu and the other, Jeyam Raja’s Velayudham.

With two popular heroes of Kollywood — Suriya and Vijay — battling it out on this festive occasion, it was rather surprising to learn who actually won the hearts of the masses this time.

7aam Arivu, produced by Udayanidhi Stalin’s Red Giant Films, saw massive publicity that ran for nearly a month before its release. Expectations too were soaring high for this film as the director who gave a runaway hit like Ghajini (both in Hindi and Tamil) was expected to deliver triple the success for this one.

Adding to the hype was Suriya’s role as Bodhidharma (a Buddhist monk) and Shruti Haasan's debut in Tamil cinema.

On the other hand, Vijay’s Velayudham was promoted at a mediocre scale in and around Tamil Nadu. With Vijay playing the role of a super-hero for the first time in his career, this one too created a lot of buzz before its release.

However, post the release, Velayudham’s stupendous victory has come as a rather surprising one. With critics and audiences voting for Vijay’s super-hero flick over Suriya’s 7am Arivu, the results have proved to be a shocker.

What really turned the tables?

“Before the release of these two movies, it seemed clear that 7am Arivu would win over Velayudham. The film’s massive promotional activities, claiming it as ‘something unseen’, proved to be a wrong tactic, once the film was released. With a lot of commercial elements in the film and scripting errors, people were let down by the Suriya-Murugadoss’s combination,” reports the source.

As a matter of fact, Velayudham which was released in comparatively lesser number of theatres across the country, has raked in more than 7aam Arivu in the first week of its theatrical release.

“Velayudham was promoted as an out-and-out commercial entertainer and did surprise the audiences when it was released. Though it had lesser publicity compared to the former, it has proven to be the ultimate winner. And while both the movies enjoyed a massive opening, the rather critical reviews let 7am Arivu down,” adds the source.

For films that rely only on promotional activities, the clear win of Velayudham proves to be a resounding lesson.

Though 7 Aum Arivu has been receiving mixed reactions from critics, director A R Murugadoss, producer Udhayanidhi Stalin and actor Suriya are flying high for they have won the admiration of Super Star Rajnikanth.

On Wednesday, a special screening of the movie was organised for Rajnikanth in Chennai.

Impressed watching the movie, Rajnikanth had reportedly appreciated Suriya for playing the lead roles well.

Rajnikanth said Suriya has put up an excellent performance. Udhayanidhi Stalin too has tweeted that Rajnikanth’s appreciation has made him happy.