5 films on climate change

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The year's world environment day celebrations at the capital city will have a special preview and release of five films on climate change. Organised by the Association of British Scholars in association with YMCA, the British High Commission, National Geographic channel and British Council, the package of short films ‘Five Scripts, One Plot: Solutions for Climate Change Challenges', focusing on climate changes, will be screened.

The short film package is directed by Nina Subramani, Madhyama Subramaniam, Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, Bishnu Dev Halder, Jitendra Adappa, Vijay Bedi and Ajay Bedi, who were the winners of the UK Environment Film Fellowships-2010.

These films which focus on many environmental issues like effective ground water conservation and eco-friendly buildings also look into the lifestyle changes adopted by the residents of Bangalore to mitigate emission and the successful reforms introduced by the Surat Municipal Corporation .The short films will be later shown on the National Geographic channel. The short film packages produced by the British Council will be released by noted director Shayamaprasad on the 5th of this month, to inaugurate the Environment Day celebrations.

Parvathy out of Kandahar?

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Major Ravi's latest project ‘Kandahar’ is continuously on news for the regular changes in its cast lines. Apart from the lead character played by Mohanlal, everyone in the original cast list seems to have changed, as the project is being developed. The latest news is that former Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan, who was getting ready to land in Mollywood with the movie, seems to have been changed her mind as the director has finalized a Kannada star Ragini Dwivedi, for the role.

The news is yet to get confirmed, but the recent talks are all about the Kannada beauty who stared in films like ‘Veera Madagiri', getting a big chance to land in Mollywood. Let's wait for the confirmation in another few days.

Mammootty with Renjith in ‘Pranchiyettan And The Saint’

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2009 was a very shiny year for Mammootty and director Renjith. Apart from the critical approval for their experiments in ‘Kerala Cafe’, their movie ‘Palery Manickyam: Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha’ has bagged many awards including the one for the best actor for Mammootty. The movie was released this year for those who missed it earlier. Anyhow the successful team is once again coming together, this time for a satire. Interestingly titled as ‘Pranchiyettan And The Saint’- the movie will be one of the immediate Mammootty movies to start its shoot.

Apart from Mammootty, Innocent will also appear as one of the title characters. As with Palery, this movie will also have plenty of faces from professional drama fields to don very important characters of the movie. The music for this hilarious satire will be by the National award winner Ouseppachan while cinematographer Venu will be in charge of the camera. Scripted by the director, ’Pranchiyettan And The Saint’ is all set to kick off its shoot by the mid of June.

M G Sreekumar, busy as music director

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M G Sreekumar has been bestowed with a national award for his singing skills, more than a decade ago. But with the current inflow of talented youngsters into the industry has made the senior singer to wait for long in between each singing assignment.

In the last year, he was able to sing for only a few films. But the talented singer is not ready to rest idle and has started setting tunes to movie songs. M G Sreekumar who has earlier done the music of 'Achaneyanenikkishtam' and 'Thaandavam' is now ready with his new role as a music director in a number of new films including the Mohanlal starer ‘Oru Naal Varum’ slated for a release in a couple of weeks.

Moreover, the singer is also getting enough offers from Tamil industry. M G Sreekumar who debuted into Tamil as a music director with the offbeat movie ‘Kancheevaram’ by Priyadharshan has a number of good projects in the pipeline.

The next Tamil movie by him as a music director will be produced by the Malayalam banner Seven Arts.

Shebi Chavakkad wants new faces

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Even as the young director Shebi Chavakkad's debut film ‘Plus Two’ is nearing release, the young director has started working for his next project in the title ‘Bachelors’.

The director who has used a bunch of fresh faces and ‘Kuselan’ fame Shafna for his previous film, will also go for a set of fresh names for his new flick.

Shebi is in the lookout for youngsters in the age group of 19-23. Interested candidates can forward their CV to Shebi at bachelorsthemovie@gmail.com.

Jayaram in 'Seniors'

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After the roaring success of ‘Pokkiri Raja’, young director Vyshakh is getting ready to start the new movie titled ‘Seniors’. To be produced by Vyshakha Rajan, the movie will have the script written by Sachi-Sethu. The young director is again planning to bring together the senior stars to play the lead characters of the movie. And thus he will have Jayaram, Biju Menon, Raguman and another of the senior star to play the lead roles. The movie will be a full length comedy with nostalgic memories these seniors about their younger days. ‘Seniors’ will kick off its shoot by the last months of this year.

Biju ready with Raama Raavanan

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Scriptwriter turned director Biju Vattappara is ready with his first flick with Suresh Gopi in the title ‘Raama Raavanan'. Based on a novel 'Manomi' by Late Madhavikutty, the movie will have Suresh Gopi as Thiruselvam an LTTE activist while Mithra Kurian will appear as the heroine playing the title character Manomi, a Sinhalese girl.

The music and lyrics of the film is by Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri & Rafi Mathira while the cinematography is by Jibu Jacob. Biju Vattappara has shot the film at locations in Sri Lanka, Thenkasi and Thiruvananthapuram.

‘Raama Raavanan’ will be the next release of Suresh Gopi as it will get to theatres by next weekend.

‘Rajamani’ to comeback with ‘Elsamma...’

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Much of the filmgoers will have watched the title of Rajamani in almost every thriller made in Mollywood. But instead of the credit for music director, they always appeared beneath the title of Background scores. All the big action thrillers that came out in the last two decades, from ‘Ekalavyan’, ‘King’ and ‘Commissioner’ to the latest ‘Pokkiri Raja’ carried Rajamani BG's, but rarely did he have chances to set tunes for songs in these films.

He has got a rare record of giving BG scores for 700 films in ten languages including Malayalam, Tamil, English, Hindi, Nepali, Singhalese, Telugu, Oriya and Bengali. This talented musician had worked on many hit songs in the earlier part of his career for films like ‘Swagatham’, ‘Ekalavyan’ and ‘Welcome to Kodaikanal’, but of late he was never given a chance to prove with his songs. “I would have loved to compose many more melodies, and many tunes I would have given for songs, I use in my background scores,” lamented Rajamani in an interview.

But now, Rajamani, the son of late pioneering music director of yesterdays Mollywood B A Chidambaranath, is getting a chance to set music to a big film...that too directed by hit maker Lal Jose.

‘Elasamma Enn Aankutty’- the new movie from Lal Jose featuring Kunchakko Boban, Indrajith and Ann (the daughter of actor Augustine as the title character), will have four songs set to music by Rajamani. The recording of the songs for the movie was recently held at Chennai. The songs written by Rafeeq Ahamed was rendered by Vijay Yesudas, Devanand, Shwetha, Rrimi Tomi and Sithaara. With such a big chance to be back to the forefront, Rajamani is sure to make the best out of the film which is sure to be shot in the most vivid colourful patterns of Lal Jose. Best of Luck, Rajamani.

Thilakan not ready to give up

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Last week, veteran actor Thilakan grabbed news space with another verbal attack on Megastar Mammootty for maintaining silence as his fans threatened to kill him. In his new verbal spree against others in the industry Thilakan made it clear that he is ready to move out of the role offered to him in ‘Achchan’ if someone else with similar capabilities comes up for the role.

The veteran star was talking to the media in the press meet organised by the makers of his new movie ‘Achchan’. “I had never approached anyone to make a role for myself and to persuade them to include me in any of the films that I had acted. I was called for all those characters because I suited them well. Even in the case of ‘Achchan’, I heard about the director's intentions to cast me in the role, only through the newspapers”, pointed out Thilakan.

Ali Akbar, the director of the film said that his movie is based on a drama written in 1978 and that he hardly has made any change in the original role for Thilakan. The character in the movie faces similar situations that Thilakan is facing in real life, currently. “I had approached many actors to be in the movie for other roles but much of them rejected the roles due to the fear of action from their organisations. Anyhow, I am planning to start the shoot of the movie at Kozhikode form the 15th of July”, informed the director.

‘Achchan’ to be produced by Dharidhra films will be scripted by S R Raveendran. Aliakbar will handle the editing, cinematography and direction departments while his daughter Aleena will be in charge of the music department.

Sathyan's next with Sreenivasan

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Sathyan Anthikkad who is enjoying the pleasant success of his new flick ‘Katha Thudarum’ will take a break from scriptwriting for his next movie. He will team up with his old friend Sreenivasan for another political satire based on the current situations of the state. Though Sreeni will be in charge of the scripting department, this movie will not have any similarity with the classic flick from the team ‘Sandhesham’.

While talking with the media at Kozhikode, Sathyan Anthikkad opined that the deserted cinema halls in Kerala are not due to the fault of the viewer. “The filmmakers instead has lost the capacity to judge the interests of the viewers, I make those kinds of films that I love to see as a viewer. That may be reason why my films makes satisfactory run at the Box Office”, says Sathyan.

Suriya and Jo blessed with baby boy!

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The lovable couple of Kollywood, Jyothika and Suriya were blessed with a baby boy in the early hours of Monday morning that is the 7th of June.

Jyothika gave birth to the baby boy in a private hospital in Chennai at 4.03 am. Suriya wasn’t beside her as he was shooting for Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Raktha Charitra’ in Mumbai. So he flew down to Chennai as soon as he heard the good news. As for the baby and the mother, both are hale and hearty, according to close family sources.

Now their daughter Diya would have the company of her younger brother. Suriya’s family, thanked the support and best wishes from their near and dear. Now all ears will be to know what the kid’s going to be named.

Well, Jo and Suriya, congratulations for the baby boy! May you receive eternal happiness and best wishes from all of us at IndiaGlitz.

'Abhiyum Naanum' in Hindi

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Prakash Raj’s much acclaimed Tamil film ‘Abhiyum Naanum' inspired by Steve Martin’s ‘Father of the Bride’ is going to be the next hot property in Bollywood from south. Prakash Raj -Trisha starrer ‘Abhiyum Naanum’ celebrates the father-daughter relationship. The 2008 movie directed by Radha Mohan brought critical accolades for both Prakash Raj and Trisha.

Later Prakash Raj himself remade the film in Kannada as ‘Nannu Nanna Kanasu’ which also launched him as a director for the first time. Amoolya and Prakash Raj played the roles Trisha and Prakash respectively.

Now Prakash Raj is taking the film to Bollywood and planning a remake in Hindi. Prakash Raj will only produce and direct the Hindi version and not act in the Hindi version according to his office sources. The cast and crew are still to be decided.