Saturday, September 30, 2006

Events Galore in September

Events attended by Vijay during the month of September:

September 23rd 2006: Felicitation function for CM Karunanidhi organised by Tamil Film Industry
September 16th 2006: Mrs. Aishwarya Dhanush's Valaikappu function, attended by Vijay, wife Sangeetha and kids.

September 11th, 2006: Surya-Jyothika Wedding attended by Vijay and Sangeetha
September 10th, 2006: Nenjirukkum Varai movie Launch, a movie directed by his dad SAC starring Narain of Chithiram Pesudhadi fame.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Vijay: Slow and steady to win the race

Vijay is on a threshold of his career when it is highly imperative for him to give a hit. The career graph of Vijay was a steep line with successive hits of Gilli, Tirupaachi, and Sivakasi. Producers rarely complained of a loss and he even earned a name of producer's delight. Meanwhile when he tried a soft romantic role in Sachien, his fans did not accept him, which made him get into a set mould once again. When his action movie Aadhi failed at the box office, it was time for Vijay to wake up and start analyzing his career.

Vijay vs Others
Barath the young blood has demonstrated that he has immense acting potential in addition to dancing skills and is consistently giving good hits with good story line. Arya too has shown his mettle as an actor and has started figuring in films with renowned directors like Bala. His archrival Ajith has put his past behind and is threatening to create a ripple in Kollywood once again with Aalwar. Vishal is simply treading the tested path laid by Vijay and is reaping rich dividends. He may even be a threat to Vijay as his style and manner of operation is just like that of Vijay.

Needless to say, Vikram and Surya are totally in a different league and have laid a perfect and strong foundation in revealing their versatility.

Emerging trends in Tamil cinema
On the other side, Tamil cinema is slowly developing into a distinctive class. New and young directors have given it a different and healthy dimension and movies catering to the mass and class are being manufactured from the tinsel factory. Taste of people has changed over a period of time and the multiplex culture has taken the cinema by storm. So at this juncture, sources reveal that if Vijay is not very careful in choosing his films he will be swept over by the tide. This has led to a very cautious approach from his side and Pokkiri his next film is being sculpted inch by inch by director Prabhu Deva.

Most expected Pokkiri
Shooting of Pokkiri is progressing in Andhra amidst tight security. A fight scene has been shot for the past one week. Prabhu Deva being the perfectionist makes no compromises with even a simple shot. Vijay having understood this is giving his best as always. This film is said to cater to audience from all strata ranging from frontbenchers to balcony crowd. Tamizh is the name of the character Vijay portrays in the film, which promises hard-core entertainment on the genre of Kakki Chattai. Prabhu Deva being the director has instilled a kind of rhythmic movement in Vijay's walk. “It appears as though Prabhu Deva has gotten into Vijay, say the unit people.

Pokkiri
A mannerism of Vijay wherein he salutes with a somersault at five feet above the ground is going to be talked about for a long time and is sure to figure in all fancy dress competitions of children for some time. Stunts have been executed with a lot of perfection. Pokkiri is expected to hit the screen after Pongal As long as the bar is at a normal level, there is nothing to worry but when it is raised, it requires more determination and hard work to stride greater heights. Vijay understands this perfectly and Pokkiri would be a live example of that.

All the best Vijay!!!

~ Article from AnandaVikatan copied and published by Behindwoods.com ~

Monday, September 25, 2006

Vijay, Prabhu Deva: trying to outdo the original

Vijay is trying to revive his fortunes in Tamil after a pretty bad 2006. His team up with Prabhu Deva, debuting as director in Tamil, for the film Pokkiri has already received positive vibes from the industry and is getting ready for Pongal 2007. By this time all readers would be aware of the fact that Pokkiri is a remake of the Telugu superhit by the same name. But it is not going to be just a remake! Interested, read on.

When one says that the movie will not be 'just' a remake of the original, what does it mean? This time it means that the remake is going to be one step above the original. 'Not easy' are the first two words that come to mind. To improve upon something that was close to perfection is not at all an easy task. But the cast and crew of Pokkiri are out to make it happen and leading from the front is Vijay himself.

He has reportedly stored the entire Telugu original on his laptop and carries it with him all the time. Before each shot is taken, he watches the corresponding scene from the Telugu original and studies how it had been taken.

He then discusses with his director different ways in which the shot can be improvised. It sure is hard work and it looks like it will pay of. There might be skeptics who tell that a remake can only be inferior to the original. All those skeptics might do well to remember that Ghilli was a remake of the Telugu hit Okkadu. Compare the movies and judge for yourself. Incidentally Ghilli too was a Vijay starrer.

Courtesy: Behindwoods.com

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Shobha Chandrasekhar’ s praise for Asin

No it is not the Italian, Chinese or continental cuisine that is keeping the lead lady of top heroes fit and healthy. You would be surprised to note what Asin’s favorite food is. It is fish curry and biriyani – cooked by none other than Shoba Chandrasekhar - you guessed it right, Vijay’s mother. Favorite food cooked by a top hero’s mother – a rare combination to find indeed.

Not many would have the luck to share a very good rapport with Vijay’s mother. It seems to be Asin’s turn now after Trisha.

Shoba Chadrasekhar is all praises for Asin and she loves Asin’s smile –every one of us do as well. The other aspect that seemed to have bonded the relationship is Asin’s simplicity. Well we are sure Shoba has reasons to state so.

After sharing screen space with Vijay in a couple of hits, it is Asin’s turn again to cast opposite him in Prabhudeva’s Pokkiri. Asin seemed to have been in a sabbatical for a while and is back again with a bang.

Behindwoods.com

Monday, September 18, 2006

Awards galore...

IndiaGlitz
[Monday, September 18, 2006]

Fans Association awards. This one was for artistes and technicians in both films and television.The awards were presented on Saturday last.

The highlight of the night was the presentation of the `Outstanding contribution to filmdom' award to M Balasubramanian and Appachan.K C N Gowda was bestowed the Life Time Achievement award.

Not surprisingly, Chandramukhi and Anniyan, two of the biggest hit of last year, walked away with most of the awards.

Vikram, Jyothika, Vijay, Vaali, Harris Jayaraj, cameraman Ravivarman were among the awardees on the night.This was the 55th year that the awards were being given to the film personalities (the Association was founded in 1948). It was also the 6th annual awards for television serials.

TV actors Abhishek and Ajay were awarded for their roles in Kolangal.Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada cinema artistes also received awards.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Vijay and Ajith wave white flag in Asin issue

Pokkiri

Asin is a busy lady nowadays. Her hands are pretty full or one might rather overflowing with commitments. What more, all those commitments are for films starring the big guys of the industry. The biggest of them all is Dasavatharam, then comes Vijay’s Pokkiri and then Ajith’s Aalwar.Out of the three, Pokkiri and Aalwar are being shot simultaneously.

Asin’s part in Dasavatharam still is a long way from being shot. So the focus is on Pokkiri and Aalwar. Earlier there had been news that Asin had absented herself from the sets of Aalwar to make herself available for Pokkiri, but that seems to be only partly true.

The simultaneous schedules have indeed resulted in some date problems for the actress. She is reportedly not able to fully satisfy both the directors and actors because she has to be constantly shuttling between the two units.

This has put both the crews in a spot. This topic has been much discussed and we have carried reports about Asin’s failing commitment to movies owing to her messy call sheet chaos.
In the midst of this, it is being said that some unknown interests are trying to take advantage of this situation and trying to instigate the heroes against the leading lady.

asin

They are reportedly telling the heroes that the heroine is more interested in the other star’s project and that this could lead to further problems. It is not clear as to who is unleashing such talk, but one must say that the reactions by the heroes have belied expectations.

Earlier one might have expected one of them to come out and make statements about the other star’s movie. We could also have expected the other star to react in a strong manner. After all, their rivalry is well known.

But the heroes seem to have grown out of their childish scrapping ways and have begun to respect each other. Both of them reportedly have brushed aside these gossips and said that such small talk was quite common in the industry and that it was not wise to heed such talk.

Well, it seems that both of them are more concerned with rebuilding their careers than bringing the other down. Keep up the good attitude and also keep giving us good movies.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Pokkiri follows the footsteps of Rajini??

Vijay

Vijay's next big release Pokkiri's shoot is underway with a notable list of star cast. Asin stars opposite Vijay.

News here is that Prabhudeva the director and Vijay, after seeing the rushes, realized that the movie – unintentionally, we assume – looked like the remake of the Rajinikanth starrer Pandiyan directed by S.P.Muthuraman, which also was a launch pad for Karthik Raja rendering music for a song.

Pokkiri's plot has close resemblance with Pandiyan and we sincerely hope that the Prabhudeva has not got any inspiration from that movie. Vijay seems not to be happy with the outcome of the movie hitherto and has decided upon changing some parts of the story line and reshoot some sequences that have been canned earlier.

Pokkiri has generated huge interest among the movie going public and is hailed to be Vijay's next big release. Another interesting feature of the movie is that it is debut venture of Prabhudeva in Tamil.

http://www.behindwoods.com/

Sunday, September 03, 2006

No Bommarillu. Next film is with Selvaraghavan

Source : Ilayathalapathy Vijay Fans Journal - Sep 2006


Here is the interview given by Selvaraghavan...


My next venture in tamil is with the biggest star ilayathalapathy vijay & the producer of the film will be either A.M.Rathnam / Oscar Movies Ravichandran / Kalaipuli S.Dhanu.

I have created an entirely different script for Vijay. It will be totally new and challenging to Vijay, different from his other films. Not only TamilNadu... the whole India will turn and see that film. I have created such an amazing script.

There will be too much expectations for our combo (Vijay - Selva). So, I have done a very big research on the taste of his audience and I am damm sure that I'll satisfy them.

The story is getting developed very fast. Most probably, we will release the news abt the film after the release of Pokkiri. I am going to work too hard for this film greater than what I have ever did. There will be his typical stunts & punch dialogues.

It will not be good if I tell something about the story now. So, it should be a suspense. Within few months, I'll get married. After that, I will concentrate fully in this project. There are so many fans for Vijay. So, I am very sure that this movie will satisfy them a lot.

Also, since vijay is a busy artiste in the film industry, I have decided to complete the film as early as possible.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Is Asin my lucky pair? – Vijay

Courtesy: Cinesouth
- 31.08.2006

There are always rumors that Vijay is a bit more superstitious than others when it comes to selecting his heroines. For some time now, Trisha was his favorite heroine. But according to rumors, he was hesitant about signing her up for his new film `Pokiri' because his previous film with her didn't do well.

Asin is now the heroine.

So, who's his lucky heroine, Asin or Trisha?

Vijay said, "I'm really not the one to answer to this question. Both Asin and Trisha had acted with me in superhit films. When I started looking for a heroine for my new film `Pokiri', my mother and Sangeetha (his wife) had suggested Trisha's name. They added that if she doesn't have callsheets, I should consider Asin's name. My mother and wife felt that I share an excellent onscreen rapport with both these actresses.

"They didn't want me to work with North-Indian actresses. New actresses who come from Kerala are very brilliant. They know that you can't hold on in the industry for long if you rely solely on glamour. "

"Both Asin and Trisha know how to strike a balance between glamour and acting. Both are very talented."

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Vijay and Ajith - Healthy Competition

Vijay and AjithCurrently Ajith is shooting for Aazhwar and the movie is expected to release by 2007 April. He has plans of doing a movie with debutant director Vijay Anand (An associate of film maker Priyadharshan) after completing Aazhwar. Aazhwar is planned to release on the day of Rajini's Sivaji.

Ajith's long time dream of getting the superstar title is not yet acheived. Now he is trying to compete with Rajinikanth. Already our Illaya Thalapathi Vijay is trying to grab the title. Competition is hot in the market now. We cinegoers have to hold our arse till next year to know the winner.

Ref : http://www.kollywoodtoday.com/news/31-08-06c.asp

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Asin's new strategy – only for Vijay movies

People make promises and decrees for different occasions and for different purposes. But our very own Asin has recently taken a resolution for a totally different cause. Before you jump to conclusions, let us spill the beans.

Asin has decided to be totally tight lipped when it comes to discussing her impending movies with Ilaya Thapalthy Vijay. She feels that media is too sharp in posing their questions craftily so as to obtain the entire story of the film from her. This is proving to be counter productive for the movie as such.

Asin

When the storyline and details of the movie are out in the press, there is no surprise factor or element in it. As long as the surprise feature is sustained in the movie, it is sure to kindle the necessary response from the audience thereby making the film a success.

Asin having realized the power of the media has decided to restrain herself from giving interviews. This resolution holds good only for the movies that she would be starring with Vijay. So what about other films and projects that she is committed to? Asin only should make things clear for us.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Win-win for Vijay: Onus on Prakash Raj

Vijay
Telugu film Bommarillu was a super hit. When the hero of the movie Siddharth staged a special show of Bommarillu for Trisha and Vijay, the latter was very impressed.

He instantly showed interest to buy the rights of the movie as we all know Ilaya Thalapathy's interest for Telugu movies and sources almost confirmed that Vijay had bought the rights of the movie. But the deal did not come through for reasons unknown.

When the present trend of remakes being successful especially after `Something Something', things have started to look up especially in the case of Bommarillu.

Prakeshraj
Talks have revived once again. There was tough competition among the producers to remake this movie in Tamil. But the latest report says that the movie has been sold to Prakash Raj by the original Telugu producer `Dil' Raju. Why Prakash? One may ask. But the reason is crystal clear. Prakash featured in the original and it is only fair that he gets a chance to remake it. But Dil Raju is also the co-producer of this movie.

Vijay
During the making of Sivakasi, Vijay had promised to star in a movie for Prakash Raj under the banner of Duet films. Now with Prakash Raj succeeding in buying the rights for the film and the interest that Vijay had shown in the film earlier and the promise that Vijay had made to Prakash Raj would very naturally result in Prakash roping in Vijay for the Tamil version of Bommarillu. Now the hunt for heroine who would match Genelia's (original heroine in Telugu version) charm will be on…

Monday, August 28, 2006

'Kaadhalil Vizhundhen' function

- 28.08.2006

Nakulan, who looked like a sumo wrestler in 'Boys' has evolved into a well built super guy. He has transformed for his role in 'Kaadhalil Vizhundhen' produced by Atlantic Cinemas.

He worked out like crazy and lost about 25 kgs. We did not believe our eyes when we saw the invitation and were even more amazed when we saw the transformation in person.

The film was inaugurated yesterday at Vijaya Gardens. Minister Velu, minister Arcot Veerasamy, actors Vijay, Jayam Ravi, Bhagyaraj and others thought Nakulan looked like a Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee and this pleased him no end as could be seen by the smile on his face.

Vijay, Bagyaraj, Jeyam Ravi

Director B V Prasad is to be commended for Nakulan's new appearance. He has assisted directors V Sekhar, Azhagamperumal and Vijay Milton. In 'Kaadhalil Vizhundhen,' he makes his debut as director.

The director is positive that the film's story and plot is novel and hitherto not seen in Indian films and this will make it surely something to watch out for. Nakulan's heroine is new face Sunaina. The technicians connected with the film are also well versed, like Vijay Antony for music and Vijay Milton on the camera.

The hero Nakulan is Devayani's younger brother. Wonder why she was not present at the pooja to wish her brother well.

Courtesy: Cinesouth.com

Saturday, August 26, 2006

Pokkiri name to be changed?

Vijay's father S A Chandrashekar is not too happy with the title `Pokkiri', says industry sources. He seemed to have commented about the negative shade of the title and plans to change it soon. So in all probability the title of Pokkiri may be changed soon.

Meanwhile, unmindful of all the excitement that is hovering around the film, Vijay was said to be having a blast with the Mumbai import Mumaith Khan at the AVM studios for the shoot of the film. Both of them were shooting for a dance number in the film. Incidentally Mumaith Khan also waltzed in the Telugu version of Pokkiri and the audience just went crazy over her gyrations. Such was the frenzy that was generated by Mumaith in the Telugu film.

Needless to say, our Tamil audience wants to have an encore of the same here. When Telugu audience had the pleasure of enjoying the sleazy number of Mumaith, why should Tamilians be left behind? So that explains Mumaith's passionate dance number with Ilaya Thalapathy at the AVM.

Now it is left for the audience to decide if Mumaith would take over the place of `item number girl' in Kollywood or not.

'Bommarillu' remake rights sold!

The remake rights of the Siddharth-Genelia starrer 'Bommarillu' was sold at a phenomenal price in Tamil.

It was love at first sight for Tamil actor Vijay. He had watched the film during a special screening that Siddharth held for his select friends in Chennai. Swargachitra Appachan, a reputed film maker in Malayalam, had bought the remake rights. The Tamil version is going to star Vijay in the lead.

You might remember Swargachitra Appachan from the 'Bangaram' fiasco. The producer had bought the remake rights of director Dharani's first Telugu film for an astronomical price only to discover 48 hours later that the film had crashed miserably at the box office.

Vijay had assured the producer that he would surely do a film for the producer. He is now starring in the Tamil version of 'Pokiri'. This one is for another producer, though.

The Tamil version of 'Bommarillu' will be his next film.