Kama Of Kingstone

‘Smile Pinki’, the tale of an UP girl and her fight against the social stigma of a cleft-lip, won the Oscar award for Best Documentary (Short).
Directed by Emmy-award winning Megan Mylan, the film was shot in Mirzapur and Varanasi of Uttar Pradesh, reports PTI.
Elated at the victory, Mylan thanked the eight-year- old girl, who could not smile due to her cleft-lip and was teased as “othkatti’ (one with a cut lip) for letting her tell her story.
“Thank you Pinki. Thank you for letting me tell your incredible story,” said Mylan while accepting the Oscar. Pinki then underwent a simple surgery with the help of social workers that almost changed her life.
Mylan also thanked the NGO Smile Train, which funded the surgery and Pinki’s Los Angeles trip to attend the Oscars. Mylan also thanked Dr Subodh K Singh, who performed the surgery.
‘Smile Pinki’ edged past ‘The Final Inch’, which was also shot in India and documents the struggle of polio workers as they travel from village to village to administer polio drops under the polio eradication programme of India, to win the award.

Tamizh Thaai vaazuthu the offcial prayer hymn of Tamilnadu State Government will be given an universal appeal by Oscar Winner A R Rahman said five times national winner Vairamuthu. He would be writing the lyrics, he revealed. The need for such a new hymn was felt when the duo attended a function in Malaysia organized by the Tamil residents and a different version of the hymn was played. “It is then that I felt that we should a Tamizh Thaai vaazhthu with an universal appeal for all Tamils across the globe and Rahman agreed to compose the tune, “ said Vairamuthu. The hymn is based on the orginal verses written by Sundaram Pillai. Rahman had earlier given Vande Mataram a new look.

Vairamuthu said that Rahman has brought focus on Tamil filmdom by winning the Oscars. The lyricist teaming up with Rahman and Manirathinam have all been hits and also bagged the national awards.

Oscar winner A R Rahman dedicated the golden statuettes he won for his score in "Slumdog Millionaire" to Indian artistes. He humbly said that "I am a representative of these artistes" and added, "it is an award for Indian artistes and their aspirations " said the young Rahman at a press-meet held here.

He also expressed the hope that Indian cinema would win more accolades at the Oscars in future.


Rahman leaves Hollywood awe-struck
Rahman became the first Indian to win two Oscars -- Original Score and Original Song ('Jai ho') -- for his music in the Danny Boyle-directed movie, which bagged eight honours at the 81st Academy Awards on Monday.

Asked about criticism from some quarters that his musical score such as 'Jai ho' was not among his best, he said it was up to "individual sensibilities".

The songs in fact "matched the Western abilities" and was even seen as the "best" in those standards, he said.

Rahman shrugged off criticism that "Slumdog Millionaire" was a "prejudiced view of the West about India" and said he saw it as "an underdog redeeming himself.

"As an artist, I see the truthfulness. However, different viewpoints are welcome," he said.

On his Oscar acceptance speech about choosing love over hate and whether it was a political statement in "troubled times", Rahman said he wanted to say those words at a time when people are divided on various grounds, including religion and caste.

Noting that the statement was "close to the heart" he said people stood divided on these grounds, among others.

To a query on whether part of his speech in Tamil had any connection to the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka, Rahman evaded a direct reply, but said, "I certainly wish for peace in Sri Lanka."

On offers from Hollywood, he said a few have come his way, but did not elaborate, quoting confidentiality.

Allaying fears of Indian audiences that he might move into Hollywood completely, Rahman said he was willing to work in good subjects in Tamil, Hindi and other languages. "I always enjoy the extra freedom in Tamil," he said.

To a query, he said he felt the Aamir Khan-starrer "Lagaan" could have won Oscars when it was nominated a few years ago.

Asked about the tense hours culminating in the ultimate moments of glory on Monday, he said he had a "sleepless night," on Sunday.

On what he had done with gifts received for winning the awards, he said with a grin, "I returned all of them since they were champagne bottles."


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Kalaignar TV launched their brand new 24 hour comedy channel 'Sirippoli', at a function at Taj Coromandal on Saturday.

Kamal Hassan launched the channel, in the presence of Tamil films comedians like Manobala, Charly, Vyapuri, M.S Bhaskar, Napolean and others.

Social Media India Ltd, a leading media and entertainment marketing and advertising sales partner of Kalaignar TV, will market the new comedy channel. They had earlier made Kalaignar's music channel Isaiaruvi a huge hit.

Before launching the show Kamal was sang few lines of his famous song 'Panneer Pushpangale...' at the request of the event's host Vijay Aadhiraj.

Kamal said after the formal launch, "I sang this song when I was just starting out and was busy in Malayalam films, and Ilayaraja who was the music director helped me to get the pronunciation of the words in Tamil correctly, as I had a very heavy Malayalam accent then..."

He further requested, "Almost all the media representatives and film industry people mention Tamil Film Industry as Kollywood, It is very ugly and the funniest thing, please don't do the same insult again and again to our film industry that produces legends and so many new talents.."

After rubbing shoulders with Hollywood's bigwigs at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, the child actors of multi-Oscar winning 'Slumdog Millionaire' spent a day at Disneyland, the numero uno destination for kids across the world.

Slumdog's Jamals - Ayush Mahesh Khedekar and Tanay Hermant Chheda, Salims - Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail Sheik and Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwalan and Latikas - Rubiana Ali and Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar lived the dream of every child as they visited Universal Studios and Disneyland in California.

Apart from getting pictures clicked with iconic Disney stars, including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the children enjoyed rides and movie making action at the studios.

During their four-day long stay in the US, it has been a whirlwind trip for the children, two of whom - Ali and Ismail - live in Mumbai's slums.

The group is scheduled to return home today, where celebrations are being planned for the movie's Oscar wins, the NBC Universal reported.

The 'Slumdog' child actors were the cynosure of all eyes at the star-studded 81st Annual Academy awards. Dressed to the tee in tuxedos and chic dresses, the children went from one TV camera to another giving interviews, waving to excited audience and basking in their new found glory.

The young stars have been swarmed by paparazzi, met idols like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and partied the night away after their film's winning streak at the Oscars.

The US President, Barack Obama, wants to watch Slumdog Millionaire, the White House has said. "I don't know if he has seen Slumdog Millionaire. I know he wants to," White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told reporters during the course of his daily press briefing.

Slumdog Millionaire, the exhilarating rags-to-riches fairy tale set in Mumbai, swept the Oscars with eight awards including the best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, with A R Rahman becoming the only Indian to bag two Oscars for the best score and original song.

Los Angeles (Agencies): Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars here on Sunday as it bagged eight awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Orginal score.

The Mozart of Madras, A.R. Rahman bagged two of the coveted statuettes for Original Score and Best Song for Jai Ho, penned by Gulzar.

Slumdog... also won best adapted screenplay, best cinematography, best sound mixing and best film editing awards.

India's Resul Pokutty, who won the best sound mixing Oscar for Slumdog... along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke, dedicated the award for the country.

Rahman dedicates Oscars to god, mother

Ella pughalum iraivanuke (All glory and fame is to god)" was how music maestro A.R. Rahman reacted to his double-Oscar feat.

Besides god, the 'Mozart of Madras' also dedicated his Oscars to his "loving" mother Kareema Begum, who was seated among the audience at the Kodak Theatre.

Rahman has always dedicated his awards to them. "I always had a choice between love and hate in my life. And I chose love and I am here," a beaming Rahman said at the Awards Ceremony.

Having shouldered the responsibilities of his family at the tender age of nine, Rahman never had an opportunity to get proper education in his life.

Begum had in an interview to a Tamil weekly had said she will feel bad forever for not giving her son an opportunity to enjoy his childhood days.

Raj TV Channel the second largest Tamil satellite television company - is foraying into the Kannada language now. The company enters market with music and a news channel.
“The Kannada music channel will go on air next month while the Kannada news channel will be launched only in April,” channel’s director M. Ravindran said.
The channel will go in for the launch of Malayalam and Telugu. The company has been postponing the decision of launching its Telugu channel and suddenly it had decided to launch Kannada channel first.
It will also be the third Kannada music channel after SS Music and U2 from the Sun TV Network.
Last year, the company had announced a Rs.4-crore investment for the four music channels, with an expected revenue of Rs.5 million per month from its advertisement
He also said Raj TV’s Telugu entertainment channel, Vissa, will be re-launched with new programmes and game shows.
Though the Tamil satellite channel market is buzzing with the launch of two comedy channels (Adithya from Sun TV and Siripolli from Kalaignar TV), Ravindran ruled out any such plans from Raj TV.
“The Sun TV and the Kalaignar TV group have the advantage of owning a cable distribution network. A competing channel will be slotted in the non-prime band,” he explained.

'Slumdog Millionaire' star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail arrives at the international airport terminal in Mumbai on Friday on their way to the Oscars. Ismail played young Salim, the brother of the main character Jamal, in the Oscar-nominated film. The child stars of the film will take their first airplane trip when they attend the ceremony in Los Angeles on Sunday.

( Courtesy: AP )

After Nan Kadavul, Arya has become a hot property in Kollywood and is sought after by many reputed production houses and directors. One such film is 'Madrasapattinam', a period film of epic properties with mega budget to make it happen. This film is to be directed by Vijay, who had directed Ajith starrier 'Kireedam'and also the acclaimed film 'Poi Solla Porom'. The film,is set in 1945 and promises to take the audience to that era with its no holds barred extravagant settings.

The hunt for a foreign lady to act as the lead pair in this love story is on. G V Prakash scroes the music and the success combination include, cameraman Nirav shah too.

The film is produced by Kalpathi S Aghoram's AGS Entertainment Company. This is the third Tamil film for the producer who had already produced successful hits like, 'Thiruttu Payale' and 'Santhosh Subramaniyam'.
Vijay handles the story, screenplay and dialogues besides wielding the megaphone

Superstar's super duper hit movie 'Baasha', which has become a phenomenon on its own right, is all set to be re-released soon. Directed by Suresh Krishna, the movie featuring Rajnikanth, Nagma, Raghuvaran and Janakaraj was one of the movies which made Rajini the most powerful star of South India.

The blockbuster movie will storm the theaters on February 27 and will be distributed by OK Films. It may be recalled that Rajini's film is being re-released after a long gap. The advent of satellite channels has almost ruined the culture of re-release, which was once a craze among audience. The movies of yersteryears' heroes like MGR and Svaji were received with much eager when they were released for the second or third time.

Let us see if Baasha could recreate the same magic it created during its release in the nineties and who can forget the silver jubilee function.

Thala Ajith's younger sister recently got married. The marriage was very simple with a very few invitees from film world. Please enjoy the photos herein published for our blog's readers.

" I am not a competent person to indulge in politics" said Kamal Hassan to a group of journalists and added " Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa were joined in politics after they had a training and experience in their political areana".

Kamal Hassan is all set to play Naseeruddin Shah's role in 'A Wednesday' which will be remade in Tamil and Telugu.

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal will enact Anupam Kher's character in the bilingual film.

Both the versions will be produced by Kamal himself and would be directed by Chakri, a US-based filmmaker and a good friend of the actor.

The actor was at the FICCI Frames convention to speak on 'Focus South'. He said he and Mohanlal wanted to work with each other for a long time.

Kamal said there was nothing wrong in remaking a good idea.

"I had remade Govind Nihalani's 'Drohakaal' in Tamil a few years ago," he said adding the film will go on floors very soon.

Kamal said he had liked 'A Wednesday' very much. "A friend of mine who watched the film told me that I suited Naseer's role very much and should have done the film. So I decided to remake it," he said.

When asked what preparations he would make to perform the role, Kamal said Naseer has already done my homework. I have now only to perform.

Kamal, who completes 50 years in the film industry next year, said he is a reluctant actor. "I always wanted to become a technician. But, filmmakers like K Balchander persuaded me saying that I will not make much money. Now, I feel star Kamal is the financier of technician Kamal," he said.


He admitted that lack of communication among different language film industries in the country was a tragedy. He said finding parochial cracks and driving wedge within different sections of the industry is a bad trend. "Chennai or Mumbai is just an address, I am an Indian actor-filmmaker, he said.

Kamal also lamented that the name Bollywood was here to stay. He said words such as Kollywood for the Chennai film industry was disgusting.

Kamal said he shrugs off complacency within him by constantly practicing introspection. "When I am told I am larger than life, I know I am 5.8 and a half," he said.

When asked about the dominance of Hindi cinema over regional films, Kamal said audience like to watch films in their own language and it was the reason why regional cinema was thriving. "We are a diverse country and everybody has a level playing field," he said.

Speaking about the Southern film industry, Kamal said the producers council of southern states had passed a resolution prohibiting corporates from entering film production in south India. "The corporates were even dissuaded from becoming the council members," he said.

Many thought that this was a very parochial attitude but the south industry is in good health in times of global recession and even the critics of the council's decision have admitted that it was a good decision," he said.

Microeconomics have set behavioural patterns and should not be seen in such a context, he said. Kamal also felt vested interests were delaying technology. We have to accept progress and be part of the change. There is no use of blaming opportunities for our failures. Business improves with content. Platforms of exhibition needs to be increased, he said.

After Vaanathaipola, director Vikraman and hero Vijaykanth are together again in Amma Creations T.Shiva produced Mariyadhai.

The entire cast and crew of the film was introduced at a press conference recently. In the meeting, the director announced that the film's shooting was complete and will hit the screens soon.

Vikraman, said, "We have completed the entire talkie portion of the film in 52 days and a few song sequences have to be completed in Australia in a couple of weeks..."

Mariyadhai has Vijaykanth in the lead along with Meera Jasmine, Meena, Ambika, Ramesh Kanna and Sampath.

Says Vijaykanth, "It is a feel-good family entertainment, with melodious music by Vijay Antony. The story and treatment by Vikraman will be the highlight of the film. I hope that the film will be mega hit of this year!'

The film is going to be marketed by Raj TV, who are planning to release it on April 10, as a big summer release.

Raj TV, one of the leading Television channels in South India will be re-entering into the big screen with a bunch of new film projects. The Rs.385 million company will start its movie production work from next April onwards. According to M. Ravindran, director, programming and technical, the company plans to sign up leading actors in Tamil industry.

"Tamil movies that feature leading actors would cost around Rs.70 million. We can do a business of around Rs.100 million. The general entertainment television channel market is very competitive. It is becoming difficult for television channels to acquire and retain movie telecast rights. In the case of own movies, we need not worry about satellite rights while we'd be happy with the additional revenues," said Ravindran. The company had already produced few low budgeted Tamil movies like Sigamani Ramamani with Director Visu.

For Raj Television, the purpose of getting into movie production is twofold - broaden its revenue stream and retain the movie rights. Presently, the Raj Television group owns satellite rights for 2,900 Tamil movies. The company is planning to produce films in other South Indian Languages like Telugu and Kannada.

Ravindran further told that the company has plans to launch a 24 hours Tamil news Channel and a music channel. He also complained that Raj channels are not telecast in the prime band by Su mangali Cable Vision, the major multi-system operator in Tamil Nadu owned by Sun Network.

"We are eagerly waiting for Tamil Nadu government's cable television company to start its operations and regarding DTH service we decided to go slow at present and talking with Sun network to telecast our channels through their DTH " Ravindran said
Tags: raj television, m ravindran, sigamani ramamani, visu.

In the aftermath of Sun TV launching its comedy channel Adithya, Kalaignar TV, the DMK-owned TV channel from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, has announced the launch of Sirippoli, its 24-hour comedy channel. Sirippoli would be formally launched on February 22, 2009.

Sirippoli will be dedicated entirely to comedy and comedy-related content, including comedy clippings from Tamil movies old and new. It is the fourth channel to be launched by Kalaignar, after the GEC Kalaignar, music channel Isai Aruvi and the recently launched news channel Seithigal.

Prior to the launch, the channel logo will be officially unveiled by Veteran actor Dr Kamal Hassan at an event in Chennai on Saturday, February 21, 2009.

The launch event, which will coincide with the first anniversary of Isai Aruvi, has been coordinated by Social Media. The sales and marketing of the new channel will be handled by Chennai-based company, Social Media, which has been handling the same duties for Kalaignar’s music channel Isai Aruvi.

K Sujit Kumar, Director, Social Media, commented on the marketing initiative for the new channel, “We have already finished releasing the print ads for the launch, while a TVC is being aired on Iasi Aruvi itself. Other than that, we have introduced some ground level activation by mixing up the Valentine’s Day celebration with the launch of the comedy channel and the existing music channel. Audiences of the music channel have been invited to send SMSes to the channel and 500 lucky winners will be sent free flowers at their door step. As part of keeping the humour quotient alive for the comedy channel, cauliflowers, instead of flowers, would be sent to the lucky winners. A lot of other activations have been planned to promote the launch of the new channel.”

Production : Image Creations

Story, screenplay and direction : Susindhran

Camera : J Lakshman

Music : V Selvaganesh

Dialogues : Bhaskar Sakthi

Editing: Mu Kasi Viswanathan

Art : G C Anandan

P R O : Nikkil

Cast : Vishnu, Vairavan, Nithin, Sundar, Appu Kutti, Suri, Pandi, Kishore, Saranya Mohan, Janaki and others

Vennilla Kabbadi Kuzhu has been engraved around Kabadi, a gallant sport in rural Tamilnadu. Mari ( Vishnu), Ayyappan ( Vairavan), Sekar (Nithin), Murthy (Sundar), Appu Kutty, Subramani ( Suryi) and Pandi are the seven youths who belong to a Kabadi team. But they are always the losers. The story is set in a village near Pazhani. It revolves around a group of seven rustic youths, passionate about the game of 'Kabadi. During the temple festival the neighboring village team is invited for a match. But the match ends up in a feud.This team earns the wrath of the villagers. This team goes to Madurai to participate in the Kabadi match but they do not get the chance. Then coach Souda Muthu (Kishore) comes along and changes their fortunes. He infuses confidence in them and motivates them to achieve success. In between Marimuthu falls in love with Saranya Mohan who comes to the temple festival in the village. The grand 'Thiruvizha' scenes leave inedible imprints on the mind. The director Susindhran has to have consciously avoided the gang of gun-toting baddies, crass comedy or silly romances. He had cleverly manipulated the romantic scenes in the Kabadi oriented film. Vishnu is impressive. His boy-next-door-looks help him bring out the emotions of a rustic, uneducated youth, keen to make a mark in his favourite sport. Saranya Mohan sans any makeup suits the role well. The comedy by Suri and Appu Kutty adds strength to the film. Kishore has done justice to the role.

Young V Selvaganesh walks away with the laurels for his melodious music and background score.

On the whole it is out and out victory for the Vennilla Kabbadi Kuzhu

Production: Vasan Visual Ventures

Story, screenplay and direction: Bala

Music: Ilayaraja

Camera: Arthur A Wilson

Dialogues: Jayamohan

Art: P Krishnamurthy

Lyrics: Vaali, Ilayaraja

Editing: Suresh Urs

Stunts: Super Subbarayan

PRO: Nikil

Cast: Arya, Pooja, Rajendran, Bharathi, Singam Puli, Keerthana,Alagzhan Tamil Mani, Kovai Krishnamurthy and others

Alazgan Tamil Mani goes with his daughter Bharathi in search of his son in Kasi whom he had abandoned fourteen years back on the advice of the astrologers. There is son Arya appears as incarnation of God. Alazgan Tamil Mani begs his son's Master (Guru) to send back his son with him. The mater tells Arya that he is not bound to have any attachments with anybody and for the time being asks him to accompany his father. Arya who comes back with his father to his native place wants to be in seclusion. He even avoids speaking with his mother. At this point he wipes out the profitable beggar mafia business using physically disabled young, old and children. Pooja is a blind beggar. Arya goes back to Kasi saying that he is God and that he will wipe out the evil people as well as the people who do not have the base to live.

Arya has excelled right from the opening scene to the end. Let it be Arya standing on his head or in the court scene. He makes the dubious god men to tremble. Pooja as the blind singer is incandescent and her outstanding performance will be talked about, as the film belongs to her, especially the lead to the climax.

Krishnamurthy and Alazgan Tamil Mani will remain in the hearts.

Maestro Ilayaraja has been the most intensifying factor for Bala's success and 'Naan Kadavul' wouldn't be an elision.

It also seems that Bala would have lifted the crux from MGR starrer Nadodi Mannan. The bunch of beggars handpicked by Bala is amazing whether it is eunuch or the midget boy.

On the whole Nan Kaduval is an embodiment.

KARPAGAM THYAGARAJAN

A new game show named 'Boys vs Girls' is to air on Vijay TV and Srikanth and Namitha have been appointed as the judges for this show.

Designed to bring out the best out of participants (from both genders), the show is expected to hinge around the ever popular 'whose better' kind of rhetoric. Keeping that in mind, Namitha with her 'designer-style' broken Tamil might be successful in wooing viewers especially in this 'gender-fight' program. Srikanth on the other hand is known to be 'softer' with comments.

The show has many rounds such as Solo and Duet performances, Concept round, Betting round and more. That paves the way for a lot of involvement from the judges.

A TV news channel informed the Supreme Court that it does not have the CD or any unedited tapes of the reports in which Union Shipping and Transport Minister T R Baalu had made derogatory remarks against Supreme Court Judge Justice B N Agrawal for passing an order directing ruling DMK party leader M Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu not to enforce state wide bandh on October 1, 2007demanding speedy completion of the Sethusamudram project.

Times Now made this submission before the apex court during a hearing.

Jaya TV sought two weeks from the apex court for producing tapes related to the statement made by Mr.Baalu.

A bench comprising Justice B N Agarwal and Justice G S Singhvi adjourned till March 24, the hearing of the contempt petition filed by AIADMK Chief J Jayalalithaa against Mr Karunanidhi, Mr Baalu, State Chief Secretary L K Tripathi, DGP and two others for defying the Supreme Court orders dated September 30, 2007

The contemnors, however, denied the allegations. The two-week time was granted to Jaya TV for producing the tapes before the court.

Ace director K.Balachander who is come to known through his stage plays, is again entering to enact stage plays.After a thirty years of gap, the KB is once again switching over to stage plays and is going to inaugurate a new play Pournami with Delhi Ganesh, Fathima Babu and Renuka. The play is likely to be inaugurated on April 18 at a grand function either at the Chennai Music Academy or in the Mylapore Fine Arts Club. It is to be remembered that Malayalam Super Star Mohanlal has been doing stage plays which bring a lot of people drawn towards watching the stage plays. When the time for electronic media preventing the general public in entering local sabhas to watch stage plays, the sudden change in the attitude of the ace director, KB to enact stage plays will revive the habit of watching the stage plays as was done some twenty years ago by the general public.
A versatile scriptwriter, a prolific director and shrewd producer, Balachander has to his credit over 100 films and had shaped up the career of several artistes including Rajnikanth and Kamal Haasan. Considered a ‘Man with Midas Touch’, he owes everything to stage plays, from where he made his beginning several decades ago.

‘Passion and love for the theatre brought me back here. Since I was busy with my prior commitments, I couldn’t pursue my love for drama for a long time. I managed to squeeze some time for this now,’ Balachander says of his comeback.
He strongly feels that the three different medium of entertainment - theatre, cinema and television are bound to coexist. ‘One cannot destroy the other and at any given time the public will see what it wants.’

Balachander is also unfazed by sceptics to his comeback. When I ventured to do television serials, everyone discouraged me. But I proved that my decision was right with successful tele-serials and many followed suit’. So his critics better get ready to eat their words.

On the challenges involved in staging a play today considering various avenues of entertainment are available on tap, he says, ‘the content is the key. If you narrate an interesting story in a gripping manner, you will have audience. There are umpteen number of themes that can be handled for stage plays like political satire, social injustice, family drama.’

KB’s popular plays like Server Sundaram, Naanal, Ethir Neechal, Neer Kumizhi, Navagraham and Major Chandrakanth were later made into films and they were hits.

He feels that the time has come now to infuse energy into theatre and his reentry would add filip to it.

By Mrs.Karpagam Thyagarajan

Sun TV Network has launched its new comedy channel ``Adithya`` from February 8th. Many wondered whether the channel would create an impact on the minds of the viewers who used to wish run after tv serials and some films which are shown in the Sun TV Channel. As expected the new channel has become a pet for many who delve into various difficult problems and pathos.
With the arrival of the new comedy channel Sun TV Network that originally began as a Tamil satellite channel has now expanded with other channels in other languages including Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The channels offered are SunTV, KTV, Sun Music, Sun News, Chutti TV, SuryaTV, GeminiTV, Teja News, Gemini News, Gemini Music, Gemini Cable Vision, UdayaTV, Udaya Movies, Udaya News, etc. The share value of the company had gone up Rs 6, or 3.71%, to end at Rs 167.55. The total volume of shares traded was 126,461 at the BSE on last Wednesday, said an official of the channel.

Soon Namitha will be seen on a reality show called Boys Vs Girls. The programme will be aired on the Vijaya TV channel. It is likely that Namitha would be appearing in the show with actor Srikanth.
Namitha is one actress who has been daring enough to dabble into TV despite having a roaring career as a leading lady in films, one wonders why is willing to do TV, in the prime of her career as an actress?
The apparent prime reason is that she is being paid a bomb of a price for this show and she is likely to make more money that doing a film, and the second reason is that Namitha looks at TV as a very good second career and she has plans to dabble into it full time in the following years.It is to be remembered that this actress was the highest paid Tamil television star when she was one of the judges in the dance programme Maanadu Mayiladu on Kalaignar TV. After the programme became popular she quit, because she felt that the price was not right!
Now after a year, Nami baby is making a comeback to television.
She and Srikanth are the Judges of Boys vs Girls reality show on Vijay TV, on Friday and Saturday 8 PM. The programme launched with 7 gorgeous girls and 7 dashing boys gearing up to face the big gender fight.
The buzz in Kollywood is that Namitha is being paid a whopping amount to participate as one of the judges in the programme.

(By n.thyagarajan)

Chennai Super Kings, a reality show which had tie up with Star Vijay will be launched from February 21st on wards. As part of its recruitment drive of persons ages ranging from 8-12 years, the recruitment drive auditions will be taking place in Chennai, Coimbatore and Trichy. Those who win in the auditions will be considered as the Chennai Super Kings, never mind if they win even in Coimbatore and Trichy.

CSK Cheerleaders, a 10 episode series, will test a number of boys and girls on their dancing skills. The teams contesting in the grand finale will get to perform to the beats of the drummer Sivamani. The show launches on February 2, airing every Friday at 10 pm.
"This is the first time that a Tamil GEC has tied-up with a sporting event like the IPL. It is a great strategy to capitalize on the brand and generate viewership." says Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India.
"These two shows will portray the aspirations of kids and their passion for the game. The new properties aims to generate interest of both national and retail advertisers" says Sriram GM of the Star Vijay TV Channel.
Rakesh Singh, marketing head, India Cements, says, "We wanted a TV partner with whom we could associate and take this great brand to the roots of Tamil Nadu. And what better channel than Star Vijay, who approached us with these two brilliant concepts, which will popularize the brand."