June 7, 2007
‘Matha’ Guruprasad may be a master of surprises, but what a wannabe artiste played on him was not a simple prank.
Guru, who became world famous in Sandalwood after directing the unconventional ‘Matha,’ always manages to find himself in interesting situations. One such was when a young man called on behalf of his friend who had lost his speech. The conversation with his fan was difficult with the intermediary having to translate everything twice. The fan ‘Shivu’ wanted to desperately meet his idol and Guru obliged.
Shivu spent an entire day in Guru’s house, conversing with him by writing everything he wanted to say on a slate. Shivu wanted to achieve something in the film industry and the impressed director decided to make him the “world’s first voiceless clap boy.” Guru sent the boy off with a parting gift, satisfied that he had done something appreciable.
Two days later Shivu called up Guru and ’spoke’ to him much to his astonishment. Shivu wanted to impress his ‘Guru’ with his acting abilities. First angry at his own betise Guru accepted his new pupil who is now an integral part of his team.
June 5, 2007
Duniya producer Siddaraju would not mind if his next film does not feature either director Soori or his brother-in-law Vijay. He wants to launch his son Loose Maada aka Yogeshwar in his next movie. If he can do it for his brother-in-law he can do it for his son na? But the 19 year old I PU student in VET will have a lot of learning and beefing up to do before weilding that sword as a hero.
Loose Maada, the character played by teenager Yogeshwar in Duniya, has become so well-known that cops mistake him for a real rowdy! This fact came to light from his father, producer Siddaraju’s own confession. “I had taken him to a two-wheeler showroom to buy him his first bike. Just as we came out two beat constables saw him and commented on him acting in ‘Duniya.’ They were under the impression that he was a real rowdy who had gained a chance in the movie. I dragged him away before they could talk more,” says the lawyer-turned-producer. Siddaraju has himself taken to calling his son Loose Maada rather than his earlier pet name of Yogi.
June 5, 2007
Music director V Manohar has decided to keep his jokes to himself, after what he thought was a harmless chit-chat, turned out be the nemesis for his career. Over a casual chat with friends the topic soon turned to money –or rather the lack of it.
Manohar in his laidback self claimed that he had won a lottery of Rs 1 Crore and could relax in life. What he thought was a joke was taken seriously by one of his friends who spread the word. That was when the real misery started for Manohar. All the offers he had to direct music for films vanished. “People here (in the industry) think that if you have money you would not do a good job. So I had no films to score music for quite sometime,” he says. But now with ‘Duniya’ turning out to be a big hit, producers have started to look towards him once again. He is experiencing the popularity he saw after ‘Janumada Jodi’ topped the charts for almost a year a decade ago.
June 4, 2007
No prizes for guessing why this photo by R Manu is special
June 4, 2007
What does ‘gudde mamsa’ —the traditional way of dividing carcass in
village communities— got to do with films? Navarasa Nayaka Jaggesh has
the answer. “In our villages the mutton of a sheep or goat is divided in to
heaps of limbs, meat from the head, intestines, prime ribs and so on. You
can pick what you want. Television has done a similar thing to films. Now you
can watch only songs, the comedy scenes, or just the fights. What more do
couch potatoes want?” is is explanation. That is his understanding as to why
people have once again started to watch movies in theatres and multiplexes.
There is one more reason for theatres to be filled up. Said Jaggesh: “At 20,
anyone who can speak a smattering of English lands up with a 25K job.
What do they do with the money? Two bottles of beer in the pub and a Rs
200 ticket in the multiplex is how they spend it.”
About Guruprasad, the director of his 100th movie Matha: Party kathe
heLOdu nODi sakath blade party tara kaaNtawne, yEno kaage haarisi
workout (money) maaDkOndu biDOna aNta hoon aMde. Eega halligOdru
Matha chennagittu saar aMtaare, dubai airportnalli iLidru Matha chennagittu
saar aMtaare…
June 3, 2007
Why does Vishnuvardhan only half raise his hands when he is required to fire pistols in ‘Kshana Kshana.’ ‘Coz he has been paid only Rs 35 lakh. If he were paid Rs 70 lakh he would have raised his hands fully, says Sandalwood sources. So how much are our actors really making while the long-time producers are crying foul over new producers with a real estate background luring actors with bigger pay packets?
Here is the going rate for the new generation of heroes (in Rs lakh)
1. Nenapirali Prem: 20-25
2. Comedy Time Ganesh: highest offer 63
3. Duniya Vijay: 18-20
4. Prajwal Devraj: 3-4
5. Vijay Raghavendra: 15-25
6. Murali: 15-25
7. Anirudhdh: 3-4
and the NOT SO OLD
1. Upendra: 63 upwards
2. Sudeep: 40-45
3. Darshan: 63
4. Puneeth: 100
and the GOLD?
1. Vishnuvardhan: 63
2. Ravichandran: 63 upwards
3. Shiva Rajkumar: 40-55
June 3, 2007
Did the producer of ‘Duniya’ Siddaraju who also happens to be hero Vijay’s brother-in-law gift director Soori a house worth Rs 40 lakh? And a car on top of it? Sandalwood is abuzz about this big-hearted gesture of the producer. But few tell you that the Tamil remake rights for ‘Duniya’ was sold for Rs 40 lakh. Soori has written the story, screenplay and dialogues for the film. So was it it not his ‘property’ afterall? The ‘property’ is worth more than the Rs 40 lakh Soori was given simply because of the fact that Boney Kapoor has purchased the Hindi rights and Allu Arjun the Telugu rights for amounts undisclosed.
June 3, 2007
Singer Rajesh Krishna has never concealed his wish to become a hero. After the disastrous ‘Santosha’ and the still-born ‘Kausalya Supraja…” he concentrated more on his other skill —that of singing. But his “desperately want to be a hero,” statement never deserted him.
His wish just got answered. It could not have been a better offer for Rajesh as it comes from Yograj Bhat, the director of ‘Mungaaru Male.’ It is now confirmed that Rajesh is one of the three heroes of ‘Galipata’ Bhat’s new venture that will go on floors this week. Diganth, who played a small role (as the guy who eventually weds the heroine) in Mungaaru Male is one of the other heroes. The third hero will be announced by Bhat on the 6th. The three heroines are Daisy Bopanna, Neethu and Chaya Singh.
June 2, 2007
When ‘Ravishastri’ (earlier named ‘Brahmana’) turned out to be an utter flop, it was left to producer Sandesh Nagraj to salvage his reputation by badmouthing Ravichandran. Forget the fact that Ravichandran’s role in the moviemaking process was left only to recommend Sneha for the female lead. Sandesh had managed to remake a movie that was already remade in Kannada starring Jaggesh.
But a gentleman that he is Ravichandran agreed to direct a movie starring
himself to compensate for Sandesh’s loss. Thus was born ‘Manjina Hani’. The first schedule of 10 days for the shooting of this film is complete. The news is that the producer was not invited. Ravi had not forgotten Nagraj’s tackiness. A lesson Sandesh Nagraj should learn from says BarioLu.
June 2, 2007
Their split was quiet and so was their coming back together. The breakup between Ravichandran and younger brother Balaji was well known if not openly talked about.
After a disastrous debut in ‘Aham Premasmi’ which his elder brother directed, Balaji aka Eshwar went into sulking mode for some time. There as an ‘unofficial’ split between the two brothers. It was left to producer K Manju to bring them back together in the ready-to-be launched ‘Rajkumari.’ What prompted Manju to bring together S Govindu, younger brother of S Narayan who has given two super-flops in ‘Joot’ and ‘Bhupati’ and the official ‘bad omen’ Balaji is a guess Sandalwood is not taking. Ravichandran though is not complaining. He is ready to act in any movie to make money for film he is going to produce.
