Talk of the Town

THE `GENTLEMAN' director is a perfectionist. And he's setting new trends in the `Indian' scenario. The setting for the fictitious Q TV, in his latest, `Nayak', the Hindi version of `Mudhalvan', for example, is more than elaborate.

Probably, more detailed and stylish than many TV studios in India. Right from the gate, to the security room, to the corridors, the rotating entry-door, to the sets of game-shows - `Kaun Banega Borepati' and the like, the editing suites, the recording rooms, the grand studio interiors - all specially set up at AVM by Thotta Tharani.

Recently, in those sets, the famous interview sequence of the original, was shot. On Raghuvaran's Chief Minister chair sat Amrish Puri, facing Anil Kapoor's flurry of uncomfortable questions, watched by Pooja Batra and Saurabh Shukla.

Rani Mukherjee incidentally, plays Manisha's role as Anil's sweetheart in the remake which Anil tells us is about ``80 per cent complete''. The unit before hitting Chennai shot the one-day Chief Minister sequence in Mumbai slums, quite a revelation to Pooja who ``had never been to a slum in Mumbai before''.

THE NEW villain and character-actor of Hindi cinema, the intense Ashish Vidyarthi, is heading south. He makes his debut in a Tamil film, ``Pukazh,'' being directed by Pavithran, known for bigscreen action spectacles. The NSD trained actor, who made award winning performances up north, plays the villain opposite Sarath Kumar. In the past too, villains of Hindi films had tried their luck in Tamil films. Amrish Puri made brief appearances, while Salim Ghouse, a Pune Film Institute product, stayed longer, getting roles even now.

IF YOU are one of those types who sighed aloud when Jackie Chan irrelevantly said in Tamil `Appala Paarkalam', or when the gale beat a very Tamilian note in the regional version of the Perfect Storm, there is salvation nearly within reach.

Thanks in large measure to the South Indian Film Artists Association and the South Indian Film Chamber. Having resolved their differences with the producers, the artists have now trained their guns on the dubbing industry.

Actor and office bearer of the South Indian Film Artists Association, Sarath Kumar said that the fight against dubbed English movies had begun. These films aggravated the severity of the economic crisis in the film industry, he said.

ARRESTS AND stay at police stations can be fun. This is at least what the Opposition in the Chennai Corporation council experienced on Monday after they squatted on the road, disrupting peak-hour traffic on Poonamallee High Road, demanding details of the Telugu Ganga scheme and a white paper on the Mayor's Hyderabad visit.

``Which station are we going to,'' asks a councillor to a police official. ``Very close sir. Just Vepery''.Once there, the merrymaking begins. The Leader of the Opposition ordered for tea and biscuits for all the 48 councillors while others were sitting around in chairs and handling ``work,'' courtesy their mobiles.

There were visitors too: Ms. Jayanthi Natarajan and Mr. Peter Alphonse from the TMC, former AIADMK Minister, Mr. Jayakumar and Congress leader, Mr. Anbarasu.Just under two hours, they were all let off. The councillors believe that they were arrested. But no, says the police. ``They were only removed and later released.''

By Sudhish Kamath,

Ramya Kannan and

R. K. Radhakrishnan.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Krishna water: PWD officials visit AP
Next     : Leather on the ramp