National Film Awards 2008 Announced

Anthaheen (Bengali) directed by Anirudha Roy Chowdhury won the Best feature film award and will receive the Swarna Kamal and a cash price of Rs 250,000. South Indian director Bala won the Best Director award for the film Naan Kadavul (Tamil). 

Naan Kadavul

Upendra Limaye bagged the Best actor award for his performance in Jogva (Marathi) directed by Rajiv Patil. Priyanka Chopra fetched the Best actress award for the film Fashion (Hindi).

Bala

Antaheen

Avit Mukhopadhyay bagged the Best Cinematography award for Anthaheen and the film also won the best lyrics award. Kangana Reanult and Arjun Rampal won the Best supporting actress and supporting actor award for Fashion and Rock On respectively. Nandita Das’s maiden directorial venture Firaaq based on the 2002 Gujarat riots won the best editing (Sreekhar Prasad) and art direction (Gautam Sen) awards.

Antaheen

Hariharan won the Best male playback singer award for Jogva (Marathi) and Shreya Goshal is the best female playback singer for the songs in Anthaheen and Jogva. Jogva also won the award for Best film on social issues category and Music composers Ajay and Atul won the best music direction awards for their songs in the film.

The Best popular film is Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (Hindi) directed by Dibakar Banerjee. Sooni Taraporewallah’s Little Zizou (English, Gujarathi) is the best film on family values and Kannada film Gubbachigalu was adjudged as the best children’s film.

Shreya Goshal 

Shams Patel won the Best Child actor award for the film Thanks Maa (Hindi). Mumbai Meri Jaan won the award for Best Special effects.

Marathi film Gandha bagged the best screenplay and best audiography award for Sachin Kundalkar and Pramod J Thomas respectively.

Priyanka Chopra

National Film Development Corporations (NFDC) Bioscope (Malayalam) directed by K Madhusoodhan won the Special Jury award. Thirakkadha directed by Renjith is the winner of Best Malayalam film, Mon Jei (Assamese), Shob Charitro Kalponik (Bengali), Vimukthi (Kannada), Harishchadrachi Factory (Marathi), Vaaranam Aayiram (Tamil) and 1940 Lookagramam (Telugu) are the winners of best feature films in regional languages. Neeraj Pande bagged the debutante director award for A Wednesday.

Kangana

Yash Raj films Road Side Romeo bagged the best Animation film and Little Zizou is the best film on family values.

Unlike previous years the Malayalam films and technicians has not won major awards in the main category of 56^th National Awards. Malayalam films bagged good number of awards in previous years National Awards like the best director, editor, music director etc. The jury of the feature film was headed by National Award winning Malayalam director Shaji N Karun.

Hariharan

Prathibha Patil, the President of India will distribute the awards to the winners on March.

Pongal Attractions

Kutty, Aayirathil Oruvan, Porkkalam and Naanayam are the Tamil films releasing on this Pongal, writes KK Moidu.

Kutty

Dhanush once again teams up with Mithran Jawahar after the success of Yaaradi Nee Mohini in Pongal release Kutty. The actor is climbing the ladder of success after delivering consecutive hits after Thiruvilayadal Aarambam. Dhanush romances Shriya Saran in Kutty. Shriya was his love interest in earlier hit Thiruvilayadal Aarambam. Devi Sri Prasad composes music for the film produced by Gemini Film Circuit.

Kutty is a remake of Allu Arjun starrer mega hit Telugu film Aarya. The film tells the story of a lively boy, who enjoys every part of life in his own terms, without harming others. He also had the charm to attract people from all walks of life. The family entertainer has no heavy violence and indecent love scenes. Shriya is a college student in the film and her role has enough scope for performance.

Aayirathil Oruvan

After two-and-a-half years of cautious refinement director Selvaraghavan’s Aayirathil Oruvan will finally see the light of the day on this year’s Pongal. Selva’s 15^th film Aayirathil Oruvan is one of the much awaited and biggest releases of the season. The makers also hopes the fantasy-adventure will take Tamil film industry into a new horizon.

Karthi Sivakumar, who won the hearts of audience in his maiden venture Paruthiveeran is the male lead of the film. Reema Sen and Andrea Jeremiah are the heroines of the film. Parthipan plays a pivotal role as Chola King in the film.

GV Prakash Kumar composes the ten songs in the film and Vairamuthu pens the lyrics for the first time for a Selvaraghavan film. R Ravindran produces the big budget film.

Porkkalam

A team of beginners joins the Pongal race with Porkkalam directed by debutante Bandi Saroj Kumar. Polladhavan and Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu fame Kishore is the male lead of the film. Sathyan, Smitha, Lal, Biju Menon and Tinnu Anand plays other important roles in the film. P Bhaskar Rao for Bharani Minerals produces the film. Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music is the highlight of the film.

The high voltage action thriller has seven villains. The dark story of love and revenge has certain elements, which are not tried in the Tamil cinema earlier.

Naanayam

Prasanna and Sibiraj, son of Sathyaraj plays the lead role in the crime-thriller Naanayam based on a bank robbery. Sibiraj plays a negative shade character for the first time in his career. Debutante Sakthi K Rajan, an earlier assistant of Mysskin, Nasser and Venkat Prabhu, directs the film. The film is produced by SPB Charan’s Capital Film Works. SP Balasubramaniam plays a bank officer role in the film. Subramaniapuram and Pasanga fame James Vasanthan  tunes music for the first time for a thriller film. Actor Silambarasan and Devisri Prasad have crooned together for a song.

Ujala-Asianet film awards 2010 announced

PV Gangadharan has been selected for the life-time achievement award. ‘Pazhassiraja’ produced by Gokulam Gopalan and directed by Hariharan has won the award for the best film while Ranjith has been selected as the best director for his film ‘Pallerimanikyam.’

Mammootty has been selected as the millennium actor for his performances in various movies. Mohanlal has won the best actor award for his performances in the films ‘Bhramaram’ and ‘Ividam Swargamanu’ while Kavya Madhavan has won the best actress award for her role in the film ‘Banaras’.

Prithviraj has been selected for the Youth Icon of the year. Lakshmi Rai has been selected as the popular actress. Sreenivasan has won the best character actor award for his roles in ‘Passenger’ and ‘Makante Achan’ while Swetha Menon has won the award for the actress in this category for the film ‘Pallerimanikyam’.
The performance of Lalu Alex in ‘Ividam Swargamanu’ won him the best villain award while Jagadeesh has been selected as the best comedian for his performance in ‘2 Harihar Nagar’. Ranjith Shankar who had scripted for the film ‘Passenger’ have won the award for best script-writer and Vayalar Sarath has bagged the award for the best lyricist for the film ‘Neelathamara’.

Deepak Dev has won the best music director award for the film ‘Puthiyamugham’. Shankar Mahadevan has been selected as the best male singer in the film ‘Puthiyamugham’ while KS Chithra has won the best female singer award for the film ‘Pazhassiraja’. Niveditha has won the best child artist award for his roles in ‘Bhramaram’ and ‘Kanakkuyil’.
The award for the best cinematographer goes to Ajayan Vincent ‘Bhramaram’.  Vijay Shankar who edited the film ‘Bhramaram’ has bagged the best editor award. Jayasurya and Bhama were selected as the best star pair for their performance in ‘Ivar Vivahitharayal’. Actor Nishan (Ritu) and actress Archana Kavi (Neelathamara) have won the awards for debut artistes.

Oscar award winner Rasool Pukutty won the special Award in recognition of his overall contribution to the Indian Film industry. Manoj K Jayan,  Sarath Kumar and  Kaniha  won the special jury award for their performance in ‘Pazhassiraja’.

Sparkling entertainers for Diwali: Aadhavan, Peranmai and Jaganmohini

Surya’s AADHAVAN, Jayam Ravi’s PERANMAI and Namitha’s JAGANMOHINI are the Tamil films releasing in time for the festive season of Diwali, writes KK Moidu


Aadhavan
The Surya and Nayanthara starrer Aadhavan is a rom-com family entertainer and is one of the most awaited releases this Diwali. The film tells the story of an assassin in Kolkata and has a lot of action sequences, but they are free of blood spilling.
Surya plays the title role in the film as a contract killer. This is the first time he teamed up with director KS Ravi Kumar who has created some of the most memorable blockbusters in Tamil cinema like Padyappa and Dasavatharam.

The highlight of the film is that Surya also plays a teenager’s role in a flashback with some modifications in his body language and voice. Surya himself plays the teenager role for the sake of making the script genuine and it enhances the story of the film.
Harris Jeyaraj composes music for the film — the fifth time he tunes for Surya’s film. Surya’s expressions and moves always adds value to the songs composed by Harris and the duo’s earlier ventures like Kaakha Kaakha, Ghajini, Varanam Aayiram and Ayan were huge successes. The romantic duet Hasili Fisiliyae rendered by Karthik and Harini in Aadhavan has already gained popularity and is topping the charts.
Aadhavan is produced by Udhyanidhi Stalin under the banner of Red Giant Movies. Saroja Devi will play a pivotal role in the film after a hiatus of more than a decade. Other roles in the film are played by Ramesh Kanna, Vadivelu, Anand Babu, Murali, Shayali Shinde, Fefsi Vijayan, Manobala, Alex and Sathyan.

Peranmai
Peranmai, directed by SP Jananathan with Jayam Ravi in the lead, is a big budget action-packed entertainer. Ravi dons a rough and tough forest officer’s role as Dhruvan and romances five heroines in the film.

Peranmai is a complete action film with a good moral and vision and the hero wipes out the evils. Ravi’s role in the film is a new treat for the audience because they have never seen him in this kind of role. His full-length action hero role as the son of a forest native is entirely different from his earlier romantic entertainers.
Director SP Jananathan is well-known for his selection of themes and he himself pens the story of Peranmai. The movie delves deep into the struggle of tribals and the protagonist, the only person completed higher studies in a tribal community, saves them.
The brave forest officer, with the help of five NCC female cadets, foils the plans of international terrorists, who are trying to enter the country with ultra modern weapons in hand to destroy the forest. The female leads of the film are played by Vasundra, Saranya, Varsha, Tanusika and Liyasree.

Ravi has done rigorous work-outs to suit the one-man army role in the film and reduced his weight to fit the role. He also trained in martial arts and archery for the movie and expects the action role in the film will become a milestone in his career. The tagline of the film is “Educate, Join, Revolt,” a saying by Dr Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution.

Hollywood actor and former Mr Universe Roland Kickinger makes his debut in Indian films by playing the baddie role. According to a report, an elephant in the film also plays a prominent part.
Peranmai is produced by K Karunamoorthy and C Arunpandiyan of Ayngaran International. Cameraman NK Ekambaram and SR Sathish Kumar use state-of-the-art foreign cameras for the dangerous stunt scenes in the forests. It has music scored by Vidhyasagar for Vyramuthu’s lyrics.

Jaganmohini
Jaganmohini is the remake of late director-producer B Vittalacharya’s cult horror film of the same name released in 1979. The latest Jaganmohini revolves around Namitha, the USP of the film. Namitha plays the role enacted by Jeyamalini in the original. NK Viswanathan, an earlier assistant of director Rama Narayanan is the director.

Director NK Vishwanathan is credited for bringing a lot of visual effects and technical nuances to Tamil films. He is experimenting glamorous Namitha for a role that needs glamour and performance.
Jaganmohini have marvellous underwater sequences and computer graphics to enthrall children. Nila and Raja play other important roles in the film. It is produced under the Murali Cine Arts banner by H Murali. The remake was made with utmost care to satisfy the current generation. The makers have tried their best to give the film an international standard to woo people of all age groups. Musical maestro Ilayaraja, who steals the hearts of music lovers, scores the music.

Bollywood to taste Honey: Trisha Krishnan

Leading lady of Tamil and Telugu film industry, Trisha Krishnan is making her debut in Bollywood opposite action hero Akshay Kumar in Khatta Meetha, writes KK Moidu Trisha’s maiden Bollywood venture Khatta Meetha is a light-hearted romantic comedy directed by remake king Priyadarshan. She plays a performance-oriented glamorous role as the love interest of front-line Bollywood hero Akshay Kumar. After watching Trisha’s performance in few Tamil films especially Abhiyum Naanum, the Mast Mast hero decided to make her as the lady love of his forthcoming film.
Khatta Meetha is produced by Akshay Kumar himself and Pritam Chakraborty composes music for the half-a-dozen songs in the film. Trisha, the charming starlet of South Indian cinema not only had a dream debut opposite Bollywood Macho Man Akshay Kumar, but also her mentor Priyadarshan directs it. Trisha also bagged two more Hindi movies, which will be produced under the banner of Akshay Kumar’s Hari Om Productions.
Trisha Krishnan made her debut as a heroine in Tamil film Leysa Leysa directed by Priyadarshan. She signed more than half-a-dozen heroine roles in Tamil films before the release of her debut Tamil film. The model turned actress entered the industry as a heroine at the time when Simran and Jyothika were ruling the roost. But she was succeeded in winning the hearts of audience with her acting talent and the competition helped her to give the best performance.
Trisha is a winner of Miss India Miss Beautiful Smile title and was a high-flying figure in fashion shows. She won the Filmfare debutante award and critical acclaim for her pairing opposite Surya in Mounam Pesiyathe. Her performance in Aayudha Ezhuthu, Unakku 18 Enakku 20 and Manasellam brought her into the limelight. Trisha earlier rejected a few Bollywood offers because of her busy schedule in Tamil and Telugu. She is currently working in Gautham Menon’s Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya and her male lead of the films is Silambarasan.
She also plays the female lead as an Anglo Indian girl in another forthcoming film Aadukalam directed by Vetrimaran and Dhanush is her hero. According to reports the actress has opted out of Aadukalam and a Telugu film opposite Balakrishna after completing few scenes to work in Khatta Meetha. She is sacrificing the two projects for concentrating more on Bollywood. But the actress strongly denied the reports.
Trisha, a former Miss Chennai is nicknamed Honey for her beautiful smile. She has paired opposite crowd pulling Tamil heroes like Vijay, Vikram and Ajith and delivered hits like Gilli and Saamy. But her pairing opposite Vikram and Vijay in last year releases Bheema and Kuruvi didn’t repeat the previous success at the box office. The sought after heroine also played female leads in many Telugu hits like Varsham, Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana and Bujjigadu and won rave reviews and fetched the Filmfare Best Actress Award.
However, she mainly played the leads of young heroes in Tamil films, but in Telugu, she was paired opposite stalwart Chiranjeevi and senior hero Venkatesh and youngsters like Prabhas and Siddharth Narayan.
The attractive actress was also honoured with the prestigious Kalaimamani Award from the Tamil Nadu Government and Nandhi Award from the Andhra Pradesh Government. Trisha is against the rumours of portraying her as the competitor to Asin, who recently made her debut opposite Aamir Khan in Ghajini.
Trisha has earlier replaced Bollywood leading ladies like Rani Mukherjee and Preity Zinta as the Brand Ambassador of Fanta India and Scooty Pep+. Will she repeat her South Indian success in Bollywood?

Mammootty: The Best Actor Award 2009-Reality Show on Asianet

16 vie for honours in unique reality show



KK Moidu 9pm Saturday, July 25 will see the launch of 'Mammootty: The Best Actor Award 2009,' on Asianet. This purpose of this unique reality show is to find the most talented budding actor/actress in Kerala. Megastar Mammootty will declare the final winners in a grand finale to be held at Dubai during the last week of October 2009.
The programme will be based on Superstar Mammootty's contribution to Malayalam Cinema. In each episode there will be a discussion about the various characters performed by the popular hero from down South India and the closeness of those characters in real life. This is the first time in the history of Malayalam Television Channel, that a programme is named after a living legend of the tinsel world. The contestants were shortlisted from among thousands of applicants and the final 16 were selected by a jury panel headed by film directors and actors, on the basis of auditions held at major cities in Kerala.
Show format
The final contestants will compete in the roles performed by Bharath Mammootty and other famous artistes. The cutting edge actor Mammootty's outstanding performances as the Family Hero, Evergreen Youth Hero, The Macho Hero, The Epic Hero, Hero of unusual Characters, Adoptions from Literature Hero, a hero with Humor Touch and other roles will be the yardstick for selecting merit in the contest. Leading film director Siddique and evergreen actress Sheela will chair the permanent panel of judges. Other leading actors from Malayalam film industry such as Jagathy Sreekumar, Siddique, Vijayaraghavan, Nedumudi Venu, Urvasi, Sreenivasan, among others will appear as celebrity judges. Scriptwriters, film directors, critics, writers, psychologists and politicians will encourage, advice and groom the contestants. The presence of Mega Star Mammootty through out the episodes is the major star attraction of the programme.

The booty
The final winners will get the chance to act in a movie produced by Mammooty's own production arm Play House Pictures and take home other fabulous prizes. The programmes will be anchored by leading mimicry artistes and mini-screen favourites, Kottayam Nazir and Tini Tom.
Asianet will telecast 'Mammootty: The Best Actor Award 2009' every Saturday from 9pm to 10pm.

Jack of all trades

Multi-talented youth icon Prithviraj plays three challenging title roles in the forthcoming Malayalam film Raghupathy Raghava Raajaram (R3) which is directed by Shaji Kailas, writes KK Moidu
Ace director Shaji Kailas, who has a number of superhits under his belt — like The King and Valyettan with Mammootty, Aaram Thampuran and Narasimham with Mohanlal, Commissioner and Mafia with Suresh Gopi — features a young hero Prithviraj in three different title roles in R3. This is the first time Prithviraj plays three title roles, one as a Psychiatrist Dr Raghupathy, second as a police officer Raghavan IPS and the third one as a rogue Raajaram. R3, scripted by AK Sajan, tells the love story of three protagonists. Samvrutha Sunil and Mamta Mohandas will play the female leads in the film.
However, Prithviraj, the heartthrob of youngsters sports a new look in Puthiya Mugham directed by Deepan, an earlier assistant of Shaji Kailas. Prithviraj appears in an all-new look in the film without his trademark moustache. He plays the role of a Brahmin youth as Krishna Kumar in the campus based love story Puthiya Mugham. He is a shy and soft-spoken youth and a resident of Kalpathi Village, near Palakkad. Krishna Kumar, a favourite of villager’s is deeply stick to his traditions and family values. He loves music, gives music lessons to kids and an expert in Mridangam.Prithviraj and Meera Nandhan in Puthiya Mugham
Krishna Kumar has a secret crush on Sridevi. She is the daughter of their family friend and lives in the neighbouring village. The innocent life of Krishna Kumar has changed forever after his admission in an engineering college in Kochi. His friendship with Anjana and Sudhi, whose marriage is already fixed and certain incidents in their life deeply affects Krishnakumar. He is forced to accept new incarnation after a few unexpected happenings in their life. Priyamani and Meera Nandhan play the female lead of the film. M Sindhuraj of Mulla fame scripts the film and Bharani K Dharan is the cinematographer.

Priyamani

Prithviraj, who is blessed with a face that can convey various expressions also tests his vocal ability in the film by singing the title song 'Suryamugham Ini Oru Puthiyamugham'. The song penned by Kaithapram and composed by Deepak Dev.

Although Prithviraj’s earlier horror film Vellinakshathram didn’t succeed at the box office, the actor once again dons the lead in a horror thriller directed by Kukku Surendran, a cousin of Santhosh Sivan.

Prithviraj plays a hi-tech thief in another forthcoming film Robinhood directed by Joshy. Bhavana is his love interest in the film.

Prithviraj, who won the Best Actor State Award at an early age for his performance in Vaasthavam, has delivered mega hits like Classmates, Swapnakoodu and Chocolate within a short span of his career. His hands are full with offers for playing the leads in forthcoming Malayalam films like Louis VI, The Reel, Cousins, Doctor Love, Kerala Café, Veettilekkulla Vazhi, Paathira Manal, Punyam Aham, Maadan Kolli (Malayalam and Tamil) and a couple of untitled films directed by Joemon, Jayaraj and Akku Akbar.Unlike other Malayalam superstars, Prithviraj has carved a niche for himself in the neighbouring Tamil industry. His excellence in romantic and action roles made him a favourite among the audience. He has played lead roles in seasonal filmmaker like Bhagyaraj in Parijatham. He also had the luck to be a part of Mani Ratnam’s high profile movie Ashokavanam in Tamil and Raavan in Hindi. Prithviraj co-stars with former Miss World Aishwarya Rai and Vikram in the film and Abhishek Bachchan will play the lead in Hindi.

Prithviraj will also play the lead in the Tamil remake of Malayalam superhit Classmate, which catapulted him to superstardom. The film, titled as Ninaithale Inikkum, is directed by Kumaravel, who assisted Kamal Hassan in many films. P Vasu’s son Shakthi will play an important role in the film and Priya Mani is the heroine.

Priyamani

Prithviraj will team up with director V Priya for an untitled film after the family entertainer Kannamoochi Yenada. Bhavana is his leading lady in the film. Prithviraj’s Telugu debut film has not seen the light of the day, but he is popular in Telugu after Sivapuram. The film is the dubbed version of Malayalam film Ananthabadram. His Telugu film Police Police, where he plays one of the lead as a cop Ravikanth is ready to release. Police Police is directed by debutante Manmohan and the film will simultaneously made in Tamil as Idam Valam.

Although Prithviraj is flooded with offers from Tamil and Malayalam, his recently released Malayalam films like One Way Ticket, Lollypop, Nammal Thammil and Calendar had failed to ring the cash registers at the box office. The actor definitely need a box office hit and pins hope on forthcoming films R3 directed by Shaji Kailas or his earlier assistant Deepan’s Puthiya Mugham or veteran director Joshy’s Robinhood.

Now the fans of the shining star are excitedly waiting to see if any of these three films or all will be able to repeat his crowd-pulling status at the box office.