Sisterly act

After Radhika and Rashmi, it is the turn of Meera Jasmine to play sister to Shivanna in Devaru Kotta Thangi. While it is true our hat-trick hero is like a brother to all the heroines, one wonders why Meera chose to play sister at this stage. After all, she was Appu’s heroine in two films – Maurya and recently, Arrasu. Hope this talented actress is not demoted to play only sister from now onwards.

Recreating magic

While the Mungaaru Male hero settles down to blissful married life and the film’s director continues to recover from the effects of Gaalipata, the rest of the team including music director Mano Murthy, lyricist Jayant Kaikini, cameraman M Krishna, choreographer Harsha and writer Preetam Gubbi have, after a gap of more than an year, are coming together to make another film. The film will have Preetham’s story, screenplay and direction. After the misadventure called Mungaaru Male-II, Preetham is finally realising his dream. Encouraging the team are three veterans – Dattanna, Sharat Babu (currently acting in Payana) and Chandrashekhar who last wielded the megaphone in Poorvapara. The film has newcomers Kiran Srinivas and Suhasi in the lead. It remains to be seen whether the team can recreate the magic of Mungaaru Male or not.

Next Home Minister

The secret is out. While many wondered why Abdul Azeem had joined politics, chucking a popular police job, the man himself revealed the real reason. If all goes well, the people of the State may well have Abdul Azeem as the Home Minister! At the launch of Nishedhagne, Azeem elaborated that despite several filmi offers, he had chosen to do this one, as this was close to his real life. Speaking of real life incidents, director Padmanabh and his team were in a spot when the scribes wanted to know about the real life incident where a Home Minister was taught a lesson by the cop in the film! Azeem rushed to their rescue and made the above revelation, cooling tempers. Azeem plays a cop on duty when prohibitory orders are imposed.

Lame excuse

The recently concluded truckers’ stir had some people, including scribes, happy. Reason? The roads were less congested, facilitating quick movement of vehicles. So it came as a surprise when people from the tinsel town continued to use ‘traffic jam’ as an excuse for their delayed appearance. First, it was Smitha, who has finally caught the eye of Gandhinagar with her bindaas acting in Kavitha Lankesh’s Avva. At the press meet of Deena in which she stars opposite Deepak of Shishya fame, the actress turned up after the meet was over; TV channels rushed in to grab their quota of soundbyte while the press simply ignored her.

Elsewhere, Prajwal turned up only one-and-a-half hour late for the audio release of his film, Gange Baare Tunge Baare. Barely opening his mouth, he reeled out the usual quotes– ``Acting in the film is a unique experience, the film will appeal to the masses, the songs are beautiful’’ and so on. As for coming in late, the young actor was ready with the stock reply, “Traffic Jam”! Actors Ramakrishna and Tulasi had earlier fielded questions from the waiting journalists. A senior scribe was heard commenting, “the actors of these days do not know the value of time”!

New studio

The name R Nagendra Rao may, at the most, be recalled by old-timers with some nostalgia. But for the younger crop of artistes the reference ends with his  pioneering efforts in filmmaking. Now, his son lyricist-actor R N Jayagopal has realised his father’s dream of opening a studio in Karnataka, after more than 50 years. Based in Chennai, RNR’s sons were keen to contribute some more to the Kannada industry. With the ambitious Ramayana finally kicking off from March 2 on Udaya TV every Sunday between 11 and 11.30 am, it was time to get that studio started. Inaugurated by actress Saroja Devi, with former chief minister Dharam Singh, journalist Vishweshwara Bhat, director A T Raghu and others in attendance, the studio was all set to shoot Seeta Kalyana, with a lavish set, costing about Rs 2 lakh.

Interestingly, Saroja Devi will be playing the role of Mandodari opposite R N Sudarshan, RNR’s youngest son, who was last seen in Matha. Saroja Devi had earlier acted with Sudarshan in his debut film, Vijayanagarada Veeraputra. Life has indeed come full circle here!

Claiming titles

Marriage seems to have done Ganesh some good, never mind what the girls say on the subject. Pranaya Raja Srinath is all set to ‘transfer’ his title to the Golden Star this Ugadi. The actor will also be taking up direction soon. Now that Pranaya Raja title will be transferred to Ganesh, what about the others? Shivanna can surely lay claim to Natasarvabhowma, bestowed upon his late father. But what about Sahasa Simha, Rebel Star, Dynamic Hero and other titles? Who among the current crop of heroes is worthy enough for any of them?