Film Talk: Nisha Kothari has an identity crisis!

Ram Gopal Varma’s blueeyed girl is facing a new crisis. Nisha Kothari is being told that she looks so different in the forthcoming Shiva that nobody can recognise her in the promos. Apparently, she’s gone in for a complete image change in this one and plays a strong character. After James and Killer, the drastic difference in her look is quite surprising. Careful, Nisha — it won’t be good news if Ramu doesn’t recognise you too!

Filmfare Awards: Siddharth,Trisha best actors!

Chennai: Nuvvasthanante Nenoddantana has made a clean sweep in the Telugu category at a glittering 53rd Fair One Filmfare Awards (South) function held at Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Saturday. It began with producer M S Raju scoring a Filmfare hat-trick.

Prabhu Deva, who also directed the movie, picked up the award for choreography. Also, most of the acting and music awards went for Nuvvasthanante Nenoddantana: best actor and actress awards for Siddharth and Trisha, best supporting actor award for Sri Hari, best music director, male playback singer and best lyricist awards for Devisri Prasad, Shankar Mahadevan and Siri Vennela Sitarama Shastri respectively. Trivikaram Srinivas walked away with the best direction award for Athadu.

In the Kannada category, box-office grosser of the year, Nenapirali, bagged all five awards at stake. The awards are: best actor (Prem Kumar), actress (Vidya Venkatesh), best film, best director (Ratanaja) and and best music director (Hamsalekha).

In the Tamil films category, blockbuster Anniyan bagged eight awards. The Rajnikanth-starrer Chandramukhi, which set the box office on fire earning a neat pile of Rs 100 crore, bagged two awards. Anniyan won the best film award and got Vikram his fourth Filmfare best actor award and music sensation Haris Jeyraj, his third. Director Shankar and lyricist Vairamuthu, too, made merry.

Suave Asin bagged the best actress award for Gajni. The same film also won Kartik the best playback singer. Binny Krishnakumari won the best female playback singer award for the song, Ra Ra.

Tilakan and Sukumari brought cheer to the Malayalam film industry by bagging both lifetime achievement awards in the overall category.

Achuvinde Amma won three awards — best film, best actress (Meera Jasmin) and best music director (Ilayaraja). The other two awards went to Tanmatra — Mohanlal bagged the best actor award and Blessy the best director award.

The 53rd Fair One Filmfare Awards (South) were sponsored by Elder Pharmaceuticals in association with Pantaloon and Prince Jewellery, Chennai, telecast partner Sun TV and radio partner Radio Mirchi. The awards were supported by Airtel, McDowells, ITC Park Sheraton Hotel & Towers, Chennai. The event was managed by 360 Degrees.

Studio Talk: Prakash Raj is the ‘real life’ villain!

A row over a moustache is all set to split the Tollywood into two halves. ‘Reel life’ villain, national award winner Prakash Raj is the ‘real life’ villain this time.

The issue that has put the Telugu Film Producers Council and the Movie Artistes Association(MAA) at loggerheads is rather a silly concern —Prakash Raj is refusing to remove his moustache for a Telugu movie he had acted in!

The actor had signed for a Telugu movie ‘Siddu,’ produced by Jyothi Prasad. And in 2003, the producer filed a complaint with the A P Film Producers Council against Prakash Raj that the actor was not giving dates to complete the shooting of the film. The council referred the matter to MAA, which in turn asked Prakash Raj to report for the shooting. He did report at the sets, but refused to shave off his moustache, which is very much needed to finish off the rest of the movie.

Subsequently, the producers council once again took up the issue, but Prakash Raj this time chose not to respond to its letters. The producers’ council has now written to all its members that if anyone signs up Prakash Raj for their films, then ‘they will be doing it at their own risks.’

“We expect the Movie Artistes Association to impose a ban on Prakash Raj,” producers council president C Kalyan told media.

MAA, however, is in a ‘play it safe’ mode. “MAA office-bearers’ election is scheduled to be held in October. So it will not be appropriate for an out going body to take a decision on such matters. It will be left to the next committee,” MAA secretary Mallikarjun Rao said. The current president of MAA is Mohan Babu, who actually maintains a good relation with Prakash Raj.

It is not the first time that Prakash Raj gets embroiled in a controversy. Five years ago when actor Nagarjuna was the president of MAA, the actor had been banned from Tollywood for a period of six months for not settling an issue.

When MAA imposed the ban, Prakash Raj fasted in front of the A P Film Chamber of Commerce office at Filmnagar. But then, the anti-Nagarjuna faction came out openly in support of Prakash Raj. Again, when the junior artistes in the film industry grouped against Prakash Raj a few years ago, an angry Raj had even beaten up one of them. Later he defended his action saying that the junior artiste had misbehaved to a heroine.

His feud with hero Pavan Kalyan had cost him a role in Gudamba Shankar even though he had shot for a major part of the film. Prakash Raj had been a strong presence in blockbusters like Okkadu, Athadu, and Varsham. He has also essayed roles in certain Hindi films, Khakhee and Shakti - the power. This Kannadiga is a much sought after actor in Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam film industries too.

Star Talk: Ileana’s new goal is fun at work!

While some successful actresses would be insecure about sharing their screen space with top actresses, ILEANA has no such insecurities. "What's the big deal about acting with other heroines. In fact, it would be fun. That's why I signed Jadoo, where I share the screen space with TAMANNA. It was fun working with her, and trust me, I spent the most interesting time on the set," she says

Screen Buzz: Which is Shriya’s most favourite outfit?

The felicitation function of the third set of winners of the ‘Lux Festive Glow Call Shriya Home Contest’ turned out to be a hilarious affair, thanks to the over-enthusiastic anchor and a crowd with matching zest.

While the organisers deliberately delayed the programme by nearly an hour, the lady anchor tried to kill time by engaging the audience in a question and answer session. The anchor did succeed in whiling away the time, but got humorous answers and retorts from the audience to her questions.

Funny moments were there in abundance. When actress Shriya did make an entry on stage, the anchor decided to have a quiz for the audience on Shriya’s likes and dislikes.

“Tell me, who is Shriya’s favourite hero,” she asked aloud, much to the bewilderment of Shriya who murmured aloud, “but I don’t have any favourite hero! All heroes are my favourite!”

“Okay, let’s cancel that question as Shriya doesn’t seem to be having a favourite hero,” the anchor said, and went on, “Now, can anybody tell me who’s Shriya’s favourite dress designer?” Once again, Shriya frowned in disbelief.

Before she could react further, someone from the audience yelled amidst loud guffaws, “It’s Brahmanandam!” Unable to take it any more, Shriya called the anchor to her side and murmured something in her ears. And then she said, “I have 12 dress designers for myself, including my mom.”

Can you imagine the next question asked by the anchor? It was, “Which is Shriya’s most favourite outfit?” “ Saree!” someone shouted. Poor Shriya first nodded her head in disagreement, and then decided to say, “Yes, I think you are right.” Finally, the lucky 50 couples had a chance to click pictures with Shriya.

Gossip: 'Dil' Raju Drowned In Big Tension!

Success brings immense happiness and at the same time, the desire to repeat the success brings in many tensions to an individual. Now, 'Dil' Raju is in same plight. The success of the film 'Bommarillu' kept Dil Raju on the top of successful producers and even he is quoting whopping prices for the dubbing rights of the same.

Now, he is making the film 'Munna' with Prabhas in lead role. Exhibitors are giving him blank check offers to bag the film. Sources say that he is re-shooting a few action scenes in order not to compromise with the quality.

If Munna turns out to be a super hit on par with 'Bommarillu', Dil Raju would be considered Number-1 producer.

Gossip : Allu Arjun's dating rumors with goan girl !!

After the tumbling of 'Happy', Allu Arjun has been keeping a low profile. The guy pinned his hopes on Puri's forthcoming 'Desamuduru'. But unwillingly he finds himself in the limelight as rumors have come up with stories linking him to one of his co-stars.

It has been alleged that both Arjun and his co-star have been seeing each other from quite a long time. Now Arjun wants his girl in his next film. The duo has also been seen together at parties in other cities. A few said that both are dating The girl is currently riding high with her latest success and has denied the allegations.
The Goan girl is no stranger to controversies of liaisons. Anyway, these dating allegations cannot disturb Arjun's image.

As we all know that the career of one of the Tollywood heroes is already in shambles because of possessiveness towards his costar. Is Arjun listening?

Something interesting between Vishal and Reema Sen !

After Surya and Jyothika, it is now the turn of Selvaraghavan and Sonia Agarwal to tie the knot. Many wondered if Nayantara and Simbu might be the next but, there just might be a surprise in store. Talks are now on that Vishaal and Reema Sen just might join the list.

Jyothika was Surya’s heroine in his first film. It turned out to be a huge hit. Coincidentally, Reema Sen was Vishaal’s heroine in his debut film. That went on to become a box office success. Vishaal followed it up with two more hits and, though Telugu by birth, he is now one of the leading young heroes in Tamil.

When Reema Sen became his heroine again in his latest hit film, rumors began that there was ‘something special’ between the two. Of course, both denied it. But, when Reema Sen gave a very special gift for Vishaal on his birthday, talks of romance got a bit more intense. There also were rumors that he had bought a very expensive silk sari as a gift for her.

Let’s wait and watch this one.

Mamata lends her sweet voice

Malluwood actress Mamta Mohandas has a beautiful voice behind her beautiful face. Well, she has lent her sweet voice for her maiden Telugu film. The pretty girl has a good voice and has performed in several occasions earlier in Kerala. She has made debut in Tamil with ‘Sivapathigaram’ and is set to taste waters in Telugu too after doing a sensuous role in Malayalam film ‘Lanka’.For a change, she has sung a song in her Telugu venture.

She is looking forward to her Tamil film‘Sivapathigharam’ and her Telugu film to push her career to a new high and is keen to do Malayalam films too. “I do Malayalam movies also in between. If I come across good scripts, I don’t want to miss them”, she said.

‘I am not quitting’: Kamalinee

Kamalinee Mukherjee has informed that she has no plans to quit Movies nor does she have any marriage plans in the near future.

Says Kamalinee: “Some vested interests are targeting me after I decided to change my Manager. I do not have plans to call it quits, especially after all the critical acclaim that I’ve been receiving for Godavari.

Added Kamalinee: “Ever since my first Tamil Film Vetayadu Vilyadu turned out to be a hit, my phone has not stopped ringing. I have been approached by two major production houses to do their Films, which I will announce soon." Kamalinee has a new Chennai based Manager to handle her dates.