Aishwarya Rai’s fight with Rajinikanth

Ash’s ability to do stunts was evident in her films like Dhoom II and Jodhaa Akbar. The actress is now learning Karate from noted Karate master Ramesh to do some daredevil stunts in the Shankar-directed Endhiran.

From what we heard, the sources close to the team say, Ash will have a fight sequence in the film, where she will test her fighting skills on Rajinikanth. Sources say that Endhiran has a scene where Rajini teaches martial arts to Ash and an interesting fight sequence has been canned.

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New record in Endhiran’s sights

Who is the greatest publicist in Tamil cinema? Well, one year back, this question might have looked interesting. Tamil cinema has quite a few producers who know the art of promoting or marketing their films well. Publicity stills, stunts, star studded audio launches, promos, contests and whirlwind releases are all part of the big picture that makes cinema viable. Producers go all out to make sure that everyone knows about their film in theaters. Nothing ever becomes popular without advertisement, however good it might be. The importance of publicity and promotions cannot be over emphasized in cinema. The old and haloed production houses have always had their ways of promoting their movies. AVM was in full form in 2007 promoting Sivaji, making it a craze all over Tamil Nadu. The cut-outs were all over the city, the songs were

always on FM and practically all theaters were showing Sivaji; there is no better way to promote a movie. Kalaipuli Thanu too is known for his aggressive style of marketing. Quite a few years back, in 2001, when publicity was not a much talked about aspect, he went all out for Aalavandhan. That unfortunately did not work. But, in 2007, he proved that he has not lost his taste for big time promotion when he launched Kanthaswamy in a style that was never before seen in Tamil cinema, making it an overnight sensation. Now, with a grand audio release ceremony, he has set the stage for a big release which will probably work wonders for him. Another publicity and marketing icon of Tamil cinema is Aascar V Ravichandran. He has been the best over the past decade or so. He made it a habit of adopting small films and releasing them with the required backing, Chiththiram Pesudhadi was one such movie. But, it is not the small stuff that he specializes in. In 2005, he showed Kollywood that a big budget can be feasible and even profitable with appropriate release strategies and top gear publicity – Anniyan. Three years later, he once again showed his big budget skills with the multi-crore Dasavatharam. The way the movie was promoted on TV might not have been one of the best, but its pre-release events, especially the Jackie Chan special audio launch were master strokes by a man who knew what he was doing. As said above, around the same time last year, it would have been an interesting debate as to who among the three names mentioned above is the publicity and promotion king of Tamil cinema. But now, this debate has been rendered ineffective and meaningless by a new player in the field who is just too good inherently. Whom are we talking about? No, it is not any of those corporate giants - Ayngaran or Eros, it is South India’s most watched media conglomerate, SUN. If one remembers right, it was with the Nakul-Sunaina starrer Kadhalil Vizhunden that SUN Pictures first entered film distribution. Now, a year later, it makes a lot of sense to talk about their primacy in promotion and marketing when another Nakul-Sunaina starrer Maasilamani is in theaters. From Kadhalil Vizhunden to Maasilamani, SUN Pictures has bought around a dozen films including Thenavattu, Dindigul Sarathy, Padikkathavan, Ayan etc. Out of the films that they have invested in, only Ayan and Padikkathavan might qualify as comparatively big products. The rest are medium budget flicks that do not boast of much star power. Yet, SUN Pictures, has left no stone unturned in trying to make these films popular, of course, not without the cooperation and visibility that the SUN Network enjoys. Promos and trailers of all kinds, lengths and sizes are beamed on the main channels of the network, almost every five minutes. Even the most disinterested person will end up taking notice of such an incessant barrage of promotional videos. It is now being jocularly said that Maasilamani might be holding the all-time Tamil cinema record for having its trailer telecast most number of times on TV. Well, you might have to believe it if you turn on TV. SUN Pictures has certainly given new dimensions to publicity in Tamil, set new benchmarks and redefined the limits of promotion. But too much advertisement can be detrimental to a product too, raising expectations abnormally high. But, SUN Pictures doesn’t seem to be stopping at this. In fact, they are now into their first production and we all know that it as big as it can get - Endhiran. More than Rs. 100 crores, Superstar, Shankar, Aishwarya Rai and A.R. Rahman – these names are publicity enough for any movie. But, SUN Pictures will not take anything for granted. Rumors are already afoot about how they intend to promote the movie, even the Superstar may be making a special appearance personally inviting people to theaters. With more than Rs. 100 crores riding on it, we can expect publicity for Endhiran to touch pitches and intensity never seen before. Maybe the same time next year we will be talking about how Endhiran holds the record for having its trailer telecast on TV the highest number of times.

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

VTV - images

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Hariharan lends his voice to Endhiran

The project Endhiran is moving fast with amazing scenes and sets at different locales around the globe giving a rewarding shape to Shankar's dream with Super Star in cast. With the music for the film being composed by the Oscar winner A R Rahman and some new technologies being used in the composition, there is definitely no doubt about the songs dominating the musical charts.
The title song in Rajini's movies generally are rendered by the music legend SPB. This time sources say that the title song of Endhiran has been delivered by Hariharan. Rajini plays the roles of both a robot and a scientist.


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Ravan – first images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vikram – Ravan look – images

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Soundarya Rajnikanth’s new addition

Ochre Studios run by Soundarya Rajinikanth has added one more feather to its cap when it selected HP storage works technology to store Animated Digital Content. This is said to enhance production processes of animated films and minimize service interruption. Industry sources aver that animation industry in India is sure to grow in leaps and bounds in the coming years and to combat this growth, it is mandatory to have state-of-art technological devices in hand.
While discussing on this, Soundarya had this to say, “Our team is determined to create the next generation of digital animated films and for this we needed a storage solution that would grow as our requirements changed.” She further added, “We are delighted to work with HP. Their unparalleled technology experience and resources will help us to achieve our business goals. The HP MSA2000fc array has made storing and retrieving data effortless by streamlining the post-production process so we can meet the creative needs of filmmakers as well as today’s competitive image quality demands.”

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

Santosh Sivan’s plans post Raavan

Santosh Sivan is planning to make a film on the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. The cinematographer-director said that he has named the film Ceylon. Elaborating further on the subject, Sivan said that his film will not deal with Prabhakaran or the Sri Lankan government angle but will concentrate on the Sri Lankan Tamils living as refugees in their own homeland.
Santosh said that he intends to rope in new faces who can speak the Sri Lankan dialect to star in the film. The director added that Ceylon would commence soon after her completes Mani Rathnam’s Raavan, for which he wielding the camera.

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

Vikram to team up with Ameer

With more than 70 percent of his portions for ‘Raavana’ being completed, Vikram has finally started looking up at his other projects. It is now confirmed that the actor will next take on a project with director Vikram K Kumar, following which he will do a movie for Ameer.

Vikram K Kumar was the director who struck gold with his recent flick, ‘Yaavarum Nalam’. The film is a supernatural thriller and was a hit both in Hindi and Tamil. The director is now said to be working on his next script, for which Vikram plays the protagonist. This film is said to be produced by Mohan Natrajan.

Apart from this, the actor has revealed that he will be doing a project with Ameer as well. With director Ameer having almost completed his ‘Yogi’, it is expected for him to take up this film next. Meanwhile, there is also a project with Selva Raghavan lined up, but this project is expected to begin later next year, after Vikram has a couple of quick releases.

Courtesy: indiaglitz.com

Kamal and Murugadoss together!

This sounds like one combination that can’t fail. Arguably India’s finest actor is ready to join hands with the most promising of young directors, AR Murugadoss.

This doesn’t seem to be the dream of the film buffs alone. Director Murugadoss, who is yet to begin his next project after ‘Ghajini’, also shares this dream to work with the Universal Hero.

He announced this at an event held recently which was attended by Kamal Haasan himself. The director went on to publicly state that he was a big fan of Kamal, who’s experimentation with roles has fascinated him a lot. He also went on to state that he would like to do a project with Kamal as the hero.

AR Murugadoss has earlier directed ‘Dheena’, ‘Ramana’ and the Suriya-starrer ‘Ghajini’ that went on to be made in Bollywood with Aamir Khan reprising Suriya’s role. Murugadoss has been holding talks with Shah Rukh for his next film, even while he will be teaming up with Suriya for another film soon.

Courtesy: indiaglitz.com

Vikram, not only an actor…

Vikram is really excited for his two mega projects, ‘Kanthaswamy’ and ‘Raavana’, both being bi-lingual movies took a good amount of time to finish. ‘Kanthaswamy’ is big time project from Susi Ganesan while ‘Raavana’ is equally a magnum opus of Mani Ratnam with striking cast.

Vikram’s film portfolio reflects movies that have created impact among the audience. Each of his movie essays character that would be quite different from his previous one. But few knew that he only entered the film world with a dream to buy a sports car! But do you know that he expressed his desire to become a top hero some day, to his wife when they first met? He not only has a penchant for acting but also has good taste of fashion. It was him who designed the entire cast’s wardrobe in the super hit movie ‘Majaa’. And not only that, as we all know he is a good singer and loves to sing!

Well, our Chiyaan surely has hidden talents!

Courtesy: indiaglitz.com

Rahman's new doctorate

AR Rahman was conferred with an honorary doctorate by the Middlesex University in London on July 8th. Rahman, the founder principal of the KM Music Conservatory in Chennai was honored at a function that was held in Middlesex University. The Midddlesex University and KM Music Conservatory will jointly work on developing the syllabus for Bachelor of Arts Honours Programmed for Music Composition and Music Performance. The joint venture is exploring the possibilty of offering the program to students who will take up the course in KM Music Conservatory during the first two years and the final year in Middlesex University.

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AR Rahman @ Middlesex University - Images

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Endhiran’s new gadget

Here’s latest from the Endhiran sets. Shankar has hired a modified Maruti Gypsy for his fantasy-thriller Endhiran. The Maruti Gypsy, reportedly altered by a noted mechanic in Pudupet, Chennai, cost around Rs. 3 lakhs for the modification. The same vehicle, according to the mechanic, was also used for election campaigning and Shankar got bowled over by its design and hired it for the flick. The Gypsy, as huge as a bus, has 20-inch wheels fixed to it with significant modifications also done to the engine.

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

Murugadoss inks a deal with Star Fox

Murugadoss shot to limelight with the Suriya starrer Ghajini in Tamil and went on to prove his mettle in Bollywood where he again wielded the megaphone to direct Aamir Khan for the Hindi version of the same film. Ever since then, there has been no looking back for the director. The latest buzz is that AR Murugadoss Productions have entered into an agreement with the Hollywood production house major, Star Fox to produce films in Tamil. Speaking about this latest development, Murugadoss said that though his production house would be producing the films, he would not don the director’s cap for all of it. Murugadoss plans to offer an opportunity to deserving directors, technicians and actors and actress in the new ventures.

Courtesy: behindwoods.com

Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya – on the sets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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