On the Sets

KANNADA

Vishnuvardhan’s 175th
The hat trick hero of 1999, versatile Vishnuvardhan’s 175th film is all set to roll. The successful hero of Veerappa Nayaka, Habba and Suryavamsham has now signed a film with producer S Shanker, whose previous films Matte Hadithu Kogile, Bangaradha Kalasha and Janani Janmabhoomi all starred Vishnuvardhan.

The film also has Ramesh Arvind, the popular hero of Kannada cinema, playing a key role. Mahesh Sukadhare of Sambhrama is the director. The music for the film will be scored by MM Keeravani. Kotaganahalli Ramaya has penned the dialogue and AC Mahendran is the cinematographer.

Khadga
Sai Kumar stunt wows trade
Sapthamukhi Nageshwari’s Khadga has become the talk of the movie trade, for Sai Kumar’s daring stunts, especially the edge-of-the-seat chase following a blood and gore fight. Sai Kumar, driving a contessa rams into another vehicle and the car is smashed to smithereens. If Sai Kumar survived the death-defying stunt without injuries, it has to be purely on the strength of his uncanny timing. Actors Upendra and Shiv Rajkumar, who were shooting nearby for Preethse arrived at the venue both to congratulate Sai Kumar and caution him against taking such huge risks in future.

The breathtaking chase scene was okayed by director Anand P Raju and cinematographer CD Raju. KD Venkatesh is the stunt director and Mangalore Dinesh is the art director. A film with no songs, Khadga also stars Shilpa, Shobhraj, Avinash, Dattatreya. It has story by HV Harini.

Love in Nepal
The Rs 20 lakh marvel
After a 10-day shoot in Nepal, producer Ravikumar and director BR Keshav are having anxious moments surrounding the release of the shoe string (Rs 20 lakh) budget film, Love in Nepal. The NOC required by the censor committee took a long delay of four months. Now with the first print ready, the team of Love In Nepal is finding it tough to market the film as it has no star value.

Fed up with the system, producer Ravikumar who also plays the role of hero has finally given the film on a percentage basis to distributors from Mangalore, Kolar and Tumkur. In regions like Mysore and Hubli the film has been marketed on a no-profit no-loss basis.

Recalling the experience of making the film, Ravi Kumar says the initial idea was to make a video album called Garden City and the budget it required made us think of a feature film. Ravi Kumar is also a managing director at Ocean Marine Supplies, Mangalore, and has plans to make a feature film entirely on a ship. He proposes to bring in Hindi actor Sunil Shetty for the film along with a lot of other top Kannada stars.

Director BR Keshav has strong hopes that the film will be lapped up by the audience. The story is about three pranksters who tease girls for “time pass.” The hero falls in love but the love isn’t returned. So the frustrated lover goes to Nepal looking for a change and there, he falls in love again, with an innocent girl. The girl’s brother objects to the romance, and since he is a powerful man the love birds have no choice but to elope. But just when they think they have reached safe territory, the hero falls from a height in a freak accident. Nagesh Mayya plays the sacrificing brother in the film and Archana, the heroine.

Uttaradruvadindh Dakshina Druvaku
Back from Rajasthan
After a month’s hectic shoot in the heat and dust of Rajasthan, the team of Uttaradruvadindh Dakshina Druvaku is back in Bangalore. The land developer, social servant and recently-elected MLA from Channapatna, Yogeshwar plays the lead role in the film.

The film’s schedule at Jaipur and Jaisalmer has been completed at a cost of nearly Rs one crore. “The action scenes composed by Ram Shetty required an investment of Rs 22 lakh while a song cost us Rs 10 lakh,” informs Yogeshwar. After the schedule at Shravana Belgola and Kulu Manali, the film will be ready on a total budget of Rs 2 crore.

Divya Pallat replaces Seema Patil as the heroine. The latter was replaced because the producer (Yogeshwar) thought she looked “totally different” from the photographs. Lokesh, Jayanti, CR Simha, Srilalitam, MN Lakshmidevi, Shobhraj, Sadashiva Salian, Hari Rai, Pavitra Lokesh, Karibasavaiah and Satyajit are also in the cast. Produced by Rajayogi Films, it has screenplay by director Raj Kishore and music by Vijay Anand. Yogeshwar has himself written the story.

TELUGU

Nuvvu Vastavani
Scent of a superhit
Super Good Films is a banner synonymous with success. This time, RB Chowdhury has promised an even bigger hit than the recordbuster Suryavamsham, with the newly-launched Nagarjuna-Simran starrer, Nuvvu Vastavani, a remake of Chowdhury’s highly successful Tamil movie, Tullatha Manamum Tullum, to be directed by a debutant, VR Pratap. The recording muhurat for the movie under the baton of SA Rajkumar was held at AVM RR Theatre, Chennai on October 4.

Says Chowdhury, “With some movies we can predict success even on the day of the launch and this movie is one such.” The shoots commenced on October 14 at a huge set erected in the seven acre plot adjoining Annapurna Studios, Hyderabad.

Chowdhury reckons music plays a huge role in a movie’s success and he hopes to take Rajkumar’s chartbuster tunes from Tamil to the Telugu version, too. He plans to release the movie on February 18, Maha Shivratri day. Director Pratap praised Chowdhury for being a godfather to several talented youth. “I hope I can justify the faith he has reposed in me by coming up with a superhit,” he said.

The star cast includes Kota Srinivasa Rao, Sudhakar, Brahmanandam, Ali, Bharani, Sivaji Raja, Mallikarjuna Rao, Y Vijaya, Sudha and Madhavisri. Shyam K Naidu cranks the camera while Vakada Apparao is the executive producer.

Simhadri
Enter: Mammootty!
“The storm is coming,” warns Palakollu Films with their debut venture, Simhadri, a Mammotty-starrer dubbed from the Malayalam hit, Siddhartha. The film’s muhurat was held at Rajyalakshmi Theatre, Chennai on October 4. A unique feature of the venture is that veteran music director and dubbing artiste of over 500 movies, Chakravarthy has written the dialogue. Says Chakravarthy, “It was my long cherished wish to write the dialogue for a dubbed movie, which is being fulfilled today. I must thank the produces for entrusting the job to me, which I find isn’t as easy as it looks. But I’ve enjoyed the work and hope to come up with a good effort. The film is basically a clash between a father and son (played by Nedumudi Venu and Mammootty). Srividya plays the hero’s mother while Rambha is his sweetheart. Sijju of Devi fame is the villain. The film has all the commercial elements like good music (by Vidyasagar), action, crime and sentiment.”

Producers JBR Pallakollu and S Ganapathi Rao are confident that like Samrajyam Simhadri, too will hit bull’s eye at the box-office.

Adbhutam
Dubbed from Amarkalam
Ajith made his debut as an actor with producer V Satyanarayana’s Prema Pustakam. And now, his 25th movie is also to be produced by Satyanarayana.

The Tamil film Amarkalam is running to packed houses in 95 theatres in its 50th day all over Tamil Nadu. Now it is being dubbed by the producer and his two sons V Sudhir Kumar and Sumanth Kumar in Telugu as Adbhutam. Says producer Satyanarayana: “For the past few weeks our film is rated as the No 1 movie in theatres by Sun TV, which speaks volumes for its phenomenal success. Shalini plays a music college student and an ardent lover of music while Ajith plays a youth who works in a theatre. She falls in love with him for his talent as a singer but he shuns her love till the end. It is a novel love story that hasn’t hit the screens so far. There is a song with 89 lines rendered by SP Balasubrahmaniam, a record of sorts. I am positive the Telugu audience will welcome our venture, too.”

Director Charan said his first two movies were for the same banner, Venkateswaralayam. “I have three people to thank for helping me get my career on track — my guru K Balachander, producer V Satyanarayana and Ajith,” he said. Ramani Bharadwaj who has composed music for ten Telugu movies, including the hits Sogasuchooda Tarama and Pittala Dora hopes to regain his top position in Telugu with this movie.

Radhika, Raghuvaran, Nasser and Ambika are in the cast. The film is presented by Ravichandran of Oscar Films.

MALAYALAM

Punaradhivasam
Nandita Das in Malayalam
Punaradhivasam (rehabilitation) is a new film scripted by P Balachandran after a brief sabbatical. He narrates the tale of a few people whose minds need to be rehabilitated — a father and son who are not able to understand and love each other, and a lady who fails to love and get love from her husband. Another core character in the story is the daughter-in-law, who comes from a household where love and understanding are in abundance. Balachandran hopes to reflect everyday reality in a middle class nuclear family set up.

Nandita Das, who played the key role in Deepa Mehta’s Fire enacts the role of the lady who can’t seem to love her husband (Lalu Alex). Manoj K Jayan, Praveena and P Balachandran are also in the cast. The film is being directed by a debutant, VK Prasad, an alumni of the School of Drama. Shankar Mahadevan and Louis Banks collaborate on the music.

Sathyam Sivam Sundaram
Three blind men!
Sathyam Sivam Sundaram is the title of a new film being picturised by the Rafi-Mekartin director duo. The strength of the duo is humour. Here too, they narrate the hilarious escapades of three blind men, of course, with a strong undercurrent of social criticism embedded in the humour.

Kunchacko Boban, Cochin Haneefa and Harisree Asokan enact the roles of the three blind people. New face Aswathy is cast in the lead female role. Balachandran Menon, Jagadish, Lal, Shilpa and Ambika are also in the cast.

R Parameswaran, Vasistha, Naresh