chiru interview @ abn andhra jyothi news channel

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South inspires bollywood @ south scope oct 2009

Mona Ramavat goes spelunking back in cinematic history and discovers that southern cinema has been inspiring Bollywood for almost as long as it's been around!
Imagine Hindi cinema but without super hits like Solva sawan, Woh saat din, Sargam, Ek duje ke liye and more recently Beta, Judwa, Saathiya, Bhool Bhoolaiya, Ghajini, Kambakht Ishq and the most recent, Wanted. But also the super duper box office hit of 1948, Chandralekha. It's not worth investing so much energy in conceiving the idea of Hindi cinema sans all its inspirations especially south Indian. It won't be an exaggeration to say that several stars were made in Hindi cinema thanks to these remakes. Besides resurrecting sagging careers of actors like Jeetendra whose hit pairing with Sridevi and Jayaprada in umpteen films remade by Padmalaya studios put him back in business. Anil Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan... Almost every super star in Bollywood has a super hit remake or a few to his credit. The list of Bollywood remakes of south Indian cinema is way too long to fit into an opening paragraph.
So let's do that instead, as we go along. Spelunking back in history we said, and we'll do exactly that.
For those not keen on grabbing the dictionary, the word doesn't mean anything fancy. It's simply exploring caves. For now though we could settle with the darkness of a movie theatre than a cave, really. Taking you back in time to the early 1900s, a little after the first talkie film was rejoiced, the trend of inter-lingual cinema was already trickling in. Bengali films were remade into Hindi even in the silent era. Another inspiration for Hindi cinema came from Marathi films and filmmakers.
Their concepts were borrowed heavily and remade for the Hindi audience.
V Shantaram's Kunku in Marathi was remade into Duniya Na Mane in Hindi as back as 1937.
After the mid 1940s, Hindi cinema started looking southwards perhaps for the first time. The south Indian influence on Bollywood was rather slow to begin but for the seven decades that followed, it was etched for posterity.
S S Vasan's Chandralekha first made in Tamil and later in Hindi by the same name was a sensation back then in the 40s. It's the story of a beautiful dancer named Chandralekha, played by T R Rajkumari. A prince falls in love with her but his brother desires her too and wants to marry her forcibly. Chandralekha agrees but on the condition that an elaborate drum dance event be organised first.
During the dance, the good prince's men appear from the drums and attack the palace. The sword fighting sequence that follows is said to be the longest ever in film history. The evil prince and his army are defeated and Chandralekha is rescued. The film was a rage those days and is recognised as the first Indian film to get nationwide distribution. And Vasan was among the first of south Indian filmmakers to foray into Hindi cinema. Later came Bahut Din Huye, which was the remake of the very successful Balanagamma, which was also produced by him. Over the next two decades he produced and directed several Hindi movies, two out of which became prominent hits of Bollywood ­ Insaniyat and Zindagi ­ both remakes of Tamil and Telugu.
Through the 1950s and 60s, many Tamil and Telugu film producers explored the idea of repeating the success stories of hit south Indian films with Hindi. The motive: to reach a wider audience. The result: A bunch of films stamped with south Indian style drama and mass entertainment. The impact: A different kind of sensibility infused into Hindi cinema.
Veteran producer-director L V Prasad's debut Hindi film, Sharda, the remake of the Tamil movie Etibirparadathu was a three hanky tear jerker and based on a rather futuristic subject for the mainstream Hindi audience. Sharda is about a man who falls in love with a girl named Sharda. They are separated after an accident he survives. But the real trouble in paradise is that he later discovers Sharda is married to an old rich man, who happens to be his father! Other hits like Miss Mary and Choti Behen again are Prasad's remakes of southern films.
Another filmmaker who successfully remade Tamil films into Hindi was A Bhimsingh. His Adini was remade from the Tamil hit Alayamani and was a huge success. The classic Bhai Behen was also remade from Pasamalar by Bhimsingh.
In the meanwhile, Prasad continued to remake southern films in Hindi during the 70s and 80s. The most remembered one from that period is perhaps the K Balachander directed Maro Charitra that Prasad remade into Ek Duje Ke Liye.
Around the same time, noted southern producer-director T Rama Rao was working in overdrive on Hindi films primarily funded by southern capital.
He dished out hits like Judai (remade from Telugu Aalu Magalu), Maang Bharo Sajna (remade from the Telugu Karthika Deepam), Andha Kanoon and Inquilab.
Many of T Rama Rao's southern inspired films featured Jeetendra in the lead, who was struggling to establish himself as a popular actor. In jest it is said that Jeetendra would be paid a fixed amount for a year and flown down to Chennai or Hyderabad to complete four southern remakes! All through the 80s, southern remakes in Hindi continued while the high drama gave way to psychological adventures and romances with a new twist. Tamil director Bharthiraja remade Sigappu Rojakkal into Red Rose starring Rajesh Khanna in 1980. Another filmmaker, Bhagyaraja made a spate of Hindi films inspired by southern cinema.
Popular ones include Woh Saat Din and Mohabbat. But what became a bigger sensation was the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Akhri Raasta that Bhagyaraj remade from Oru Kaithiya Diary.
David Dhawan by then was already adapting several movies of the south into his famous Bollywood comedies with Govinda. Especially Telugu films starring veteran comedy star Rajendra Prasad.
Biwi No 1 was inspired from the killer comedy Sathi Leelavathi in Telugu.
Enter the late 90s and Mani Ratnam began to create new standards of filmmaking, particularly in the technical aspects with his films Roja, Bombay, Dil Se and later Yuva and Guru, which were all inspired by his Tamil films.
Not too far behind was Priyadarshan, perhaps the most prominent Malayalam filmmaker who did Hindi cinema and churned out several popular hits. The Anil Kapoor, Tabu starrer Virasat was remade by him from Kamal Haasan's Thevar Magan. Before that came Gardish, which was inspired by a Malayalam film. Priyadarshan successfully remade several Malayalam and Tamil comedy films into Hindi like Hulchul, Bhool Bhulaiya, HungamaandGaram Masala. Kyun Ki based on his 1986 film, Thalavottam was also reasonably successful.
Over the last two decades, several Hindi films have also been remade into the south Indian languages, but this is more of a reverse trend.
More recently, with the Khan troika doing it too, southern remakes have become a cool thing to do. Aamir Khan's Ghajini remade from the Tamil version of the same name, Shahrukh Khan's Billu Barber adapted from the Malayalam Kadha Parayumbol and the recently released Wanted with Salman Khan is remade from the Telugu superhit Pokiri. What next? We wonder.

The beauty of small budget films @ South Scope Oct 2009

A spate of small budget films in Tamil this year beat the biggies at their own game! Sridevi Sreedhar takes stock It started as something that industry pundits sat up and took notice of, somewhere in the beginning of the year and eight months into 2009, the trend was pretty much and irreversibly established! The numerous small budget films made and marketed (including print and publicity cost) on a budget of Rs 3 to Rs 6 crores turned out to be bigger box office grosser than anything big! Films like Yaavarum Nalam, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, Siva Manasulla Sakthi, Pasanga, Maasailamani, Nadodigal and Maayandi Kudumbathaar were the real winners. Says Tirupur Subramaniam, leading distributor and financier in Tamil Nadu, "Films like Nadodigal, Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu etc are super hits as they will make nearly three times the money invested on them".
What came as a surprise was the less than expected popularity of superstar big budget films like Villu, Sarvvam, Naan Kadavul, Thoranai and a few others in the Rs 15-20 crores range. The only exception to this was the year's biggest blockbuster so far, Suriya's Ayan, which was made and marketed with a budget of Rs 23 crore and is doing business worth Rs 40 to 45 crore from domestic theatres, overseas, Telugu dubbing, audio and DVD sales and Television rights Small budget films also nudged to the limelight many new entrants like Jeeva, Nakul, Vishnu. Add to that writer, director, actor and producer Sasikumar who is the new rage with Tamil cinema buffs these days.
Ramanarayanan, the President of the powerful Tamil Film Producers Council offers, "I'm very happy with the current trend in Tamil film industry. Small and entertaining films made on a tight budget are turning out to be the new formulae for box office hits these days. Personally, I feel that star movies are highly overpriced and we can make at least two small films with the salary the stars are demanding." Add to that a chief minister with a connoisseur's interest in cinema.
M Karunanidhi is an excellent script writer who contributed immensely to the industry. Also, Tamil Nadu is the only state that does not have entertainment tax for Tamil films.
Adds Swaroop Reddy of Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai, the highest collecting multiplex in south India, "I would say that audiences are on the look out for fresh and innovative ideas and not necessarily stars. I agree that star films take an extraordinary opening but they will not sustain, if the content is bad."

The success of a film no longer depends entirely on bombarding the audience with the tried and tested, while exploiting their ideas of fantasy and escape. Something refreshing, a good presentation reinforced by effective marketing techniques clicks at the box-office. Anushka's Telugu blockbuster Arundhati which was bought at a record price to be dubbed into Tamil and released in nearly 150 screens across the state did good business primarily because of its graphics and special effects, which was not run of the mill.
Noted director Mysskin points out, "Today I can bravely make a film the way I want to as a star alone cannot make a film a hit. It is the newness in script and presentation that matters to most of our audiences." Sasikumar who many consider the man who made the change says, "In a way the new trend of content driven films with attractive packaging and essential commercial ingredients show that Tamil cinema has evolved. Our audiences have also matured as they have become more open to newer ideas and are not willing to accept a film just for the sake of a hero."

All of this has resulted in a small film boom of sorts. But there are enough Tamil NRIs and Mumbai based corporates who are pumping in the moolah, and finance is the least of the problems. In the first eight months of the year nearly 90 straight Tamil films mostly in the small budget genre were released, while another 50 to 60 are getting ready for release later this year. By the end of the year, trade pundits predict a record output from the Tamil industry that may just flirt with the 150 releases mark! The new wave Tamil cinema is all about small being the new big!

tamil malayalam snippets 2 in south scope oct 2009

AADHAVAN
Udayanidhi Stalin's K S Ravikumar directed Aadhavan featuring suriya and nayanthara in the lead is all set for Deepavali release.
Harris Jeyaraj, the music director of the film and actor suriya are coming together for the fifth time, to churn out more hits. The movie has shots from the virgin locales of Iceland for the first time. This visual extravaganza has Saroja Devi who will be back after a gap of twelve years, late Murali and Vadivel also play supporting roles. Suriya showcases negative shades for the first time, which is rumored to be the highlight of the flick.
Suriya, also appears as a 10-year old in a portion of the movie. Aadhavan seems to be a slick film. director K.s. Ravikumar Cast Suriya, Nayanthara, Vadivelu,saroja devi Musicharris Jayaraj
Angel John
This movie marks the Malayalam debut of Shanthanoo Bhagyaraj (sakkarakatti fame) who is the son of Tamil actor-director K Bhagyaraj and poornima.
Mohanlal does a cameo for this one. director s l Jayasurya Cast Shantanoo, Mohanlal Produced byK.K. Narayananunder the bannercreative team
PAZHASSI RAJA
This historical film set in 18th century is based on the life of Pazhassi Raja who was the warrior prince of Malabar, the first real freedom fighter in India who fought against the British rule. This epic movie is the biggest ever project in the history of Malayalam films with a budget of Rs 25 crore. The film will subsequently be dubbed and released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Resul Pookutty of Slumdog Millionaire fame is recording sound for this film. director hariharan cast Mammootty, sarath Kumar,Kaniha, padmapriya MusicIllairaja

charan celebrating sankranti

RAM CHARAN TEJ

We celebrate all the festivals —including Sankranti, with equal fervour. All our family members are busy in their own way, so the festival provides us an opportunity to meet up with all of them. Besides the traditional family lunch, on Sankranti I indulge my sweet tooth a lot. I also meet up with some close friends on this day.


PULLELA GOPICHAND
Former National Badminton Champ
There will be a puja at home. Then I will head for the academy to celebrate with my students there. In the evening, my students, friends and family get together for a grand kite flying session. It’s a time when we forget everything and have great fun. Earlier, we used to pay a visit to my grandmom’s place but now its more of a city affair.
ANUSHKA
For me every festival is special. Sankranti is definitely one of them. We celebrate it in a traditional way at home. We wear new clothes, do the puja and binge on sweets. I also meet up with close family and friends.
Rana and his brother Abhiram
Since childhood, I have always associated Sankranti with new film releases — that’s probably because I hail from a producer’s family. But this year the day will be more special since my debut film is set to hit the screens. However, for a huge family such as ours it’s a great excuse for a get-together. I have a gala time with my siblings/cousins. It’s also time to relish mouthwatering sweets made at home and fly colourful kites.
CHARMME
I have been celebrating Sankranti for the last seven years. I visit Telugu families in my colony and relish all kinds of sweets and special dishes, especially the pulihara (tamarind rice). I like to see everybody dressed in colourful new clothes. I may not be able to fly kites myself, but I love cheering my friends who fly them. This festival is all about fun and frolic.
PRAGYAN OJHA Cricketer
I can’t celebrate Sankranti this year, so as such, I have not planned anything for the day. I will be away in Dhaka, practicing for the upcoming Test match. So I will have to give Sankranti celebrations a miss this time round.