Gowtham Menon thrown out of Ajith's film

It was all termed to be a rumuor until Gowtham Menon himself confirmed about directing Vijay’s film. Director Gowtham Menon laid his hand on ‘resurgence of Tamil cinema’ by making Hollywood-inclined led flicks.


Indeed, he drew more inspiration from Hollywood films Kaaka Kaaka, Vetaiyadu Vilayadu (inspired from Bone Collector), Pacchaikili Muthucharam (Derailed) and Vaaranam Aayiram (Tom Hanks starrer Forrest Gump).




Gowtham Menon was signed to direct Ajith Kumar’s film that is produced by Sivaji Productions. But as he failed to deliver the final draft of his script, the offer was withdrawn. At the moment, he is busy shooting for three projects simultaneously- Simbhu-Trisha starrer Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya, Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikalam and an untitled film featuring his manager and hottie Sameera Reddy in lead roles.


Amidst these busy schedules, Gowtham has confirmed that he will direct Vijay’s film very shortly and they’ve been discussing the script.


Courtesy: oneindia.in

Gautham & Rahman - One more!

While Harris has gone on records about his rift with Gautham Menon and announced about his split with the director, the latter remained tightlipped about the whole issue. Soon enough, as if to acknowledge the split officially, Gautham has recently struck a deal with A R Rahman for his Telugu venture produced by the UTV Motion Pictures

with Mahesh Babu in the lead. Kollywood sources predict that Gautham’s association with Rahman will continue in his future projects too. Rahman is also scoring for Gautham’s Chennayil Oru Mazhaikaalam, which is reportedly 60 per cent complete.It is to be noted that the recently released Vaaranam Aayiram has blockbuster music scored by Harris.

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

Soundarya's Ocher ropes in Gautham Menon

Soundarya Rajinikanth's Ocher Studios is currently busy with the 3D animation flick 'Sultan – the Warrior'. Despite this, the production house has big plans to constantly make films with leading directors. As reported earlier, Venkat Prabhu's next film has been titled 'Goa' and Soundarya will be taking care of the production responsibilities.

The latest news however is that Gautham Menon has been roped in for another film. The director is expected to commence work for this project after he finishes 'Vaaranam Aayiram' that stars Suriya.

Observers feel that Ocher Studios are gearing up to produce a slew of quality films every year.

Apart from these, Ocher is planning to make a Telugu film starring Mahesh Babu which will be directed by Puri Jagannath.

Courtesy: indiaglitz.com

‘Varanam Aayiram is a conservative film’

AFTER your comments about hating Bheema, you seem to be getting notorious for your frank opinions.

There was such build-up for Bheema! Director Lingusamy, Vikram and I keep running into one another. And Harris Jayraj, who did the music, kept saying, ‘It’s such a brilliant film.’ But when I went and watched it, I was so disappointed that I just had to say something about it.
But doesn’t this rub people the wrong way?


Yeah. I think Vikram hates me now and Vijay had a problem with what I said (about his giving me DVDs of his films so that I could incorporate elements from them into a script for him). But I don’t care. They can talk about my film too. That’s the way it should be. If Vikram and Vijay are not going to work with me because of this, I think it’s their loss.

So you don’t think you’re cutting off avenues?

I don’t think so. I’m making a film with newcomers - four boys. I don’t know how well the film will do, but at least I’m enjoying myself. These boys give me everything. Even Surya worked for me like that in Varanam Aayiram. I said, ‘At 17, I need you to look like this, at 21, like this and at 31, you’re a tough guy; so can we have a six-pack?’ It’s only for one scene. And for four months, he went off everything! He’d eat only boiled vegetables and chicken with no salt. And he was going through all that just for a film. I can always do a film with Surya, Karthi and with so many youngsters. But I’m hoping others will come around.

Tell us about Varanam Aayiram.

It’s the story of a young man on the verge of life. The film traces his life from the time he is born up to a point where he realises he’s made it in life. We see his first love, whether he gets to marry the girl he fell in love with and the equation he had with his father - an inspiration at every point in his life. It traces parts of my life and the lives of everybody I know.
So is it a sort of biopic of Gautam Menon?

It’s a very personal story. But what I’m hoping is that the guy next to you in the theatre will say, ‘Hey this has happened to me!’ Of course, there’s a little bit of fantasy.
Let’s shift gears to Chennayil Oru Mazhaikaalam.

Varanam Aayiram is a very conservative film in terms of what Surya thinks about women; but this is a very in-your-face sort of film with four boys and three girls. We wanted to cast only newcomers. Then the co-producer said, ‘We need somebody in this film other than Gautam and AR Rahman.’ So we pitched the idea to Trisha. She was looking forward to working with us.

There’s been a lot of talk about the switch from your regular - Harris Jayaraj.

I am doing a film with Harris in December which stars Ajit. I always wanted to work with Rahman right from when Minnale happened. Harris knows that too. Even Rahman was saying ‘You have a great record with Harris. They’ll think I’ve done something to that!’

With Ajit, will you attempt to tread a middle path between an Ajit film and a Gautam Menon film?

The only time that happened was with Vijay. I narrated bits of Varanam Aayiram to him. He said he loved it but then he said, ‘Can you bring some of my elements into the film?’ I said it wouldn’t work in a film like this. I don’t want to do that kind of compromise. I did that with Pachaikili Muthucharam. That was a mistake; and I don’t want to do that again.

Ever thought of doing films in Bollywood?

I don’t want to make the mistake I made with Rehnaa Hai Tere Dil Mein. Nobody knows me there; so I want to go with a big actor that the crowd will come for. I am pitching something with Abhishek (Bachchan) right now. I’m also thinking of a remake of Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu with Amitabh, taking out the love angle.

Courtesy: newindpress.com

Gautham ready to reshoot

Remember Gautham Menon's ‘Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam’. The movie starring Trisha alongside five newcomers went to floors a few months ago.

However Gautham temporarily halted the shooting of ‘Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam’ to concentrate on ‘Varanam Aayiram’ starring Suriya.

Now that ‘Varanam Aayiram’ is nearing completion, the director is keen to restart ‘Chennaiyil Oru Mazhiakaalam’.

Plans are on to commence shooting from the end of April. Interestingly Gautham Menon has teamed up with A R Rahman for the movie. In spite of his busy schedule in Hindi, Rahman has agreed to work for it.

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Who will crank the camera 'Robot'?

Confusion over the cinematographer of Shankar’s Robot continues. Earlier it was said that Nirav Shaw would be the cinematographer of the mega movie starring Superstar Rajinikanth and Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai. However, according to a grapevine, Nirav Shaw’s demand for a huge salary made Shankar look for other options.

The ace director then roped in Thiru but even this arrangement did not last for long. The latest news is that Thiru is out and Rathnavelu is in.


Rathnavelu, who is fondly called as ‘Randy’ in Kollywood circles, is one of the favorite cinematographers of the leading heroes. Moreover, he hasn’t demanded much salary to work in the project. So it is believed that Randy, who cranked the camera for movies like ‘Sethu’, ‘Nandha’, ‘Jeyam’, ‘Thirumalai’ and ‘Perazhagan’, will be the cinematographer for the mega budget movie produced by Ayngaran International and Eros Multimedia.

Rathnavelu is currently working for Goutham Menon’s ‘Vaaranam Aayiram’, starring Suriya, Sameera Reddy, and Divya Spandana.

Courtesy: Indiaglitz.com