A live link with fans

ANOTHER OF the `Three Roses' (Tamil avatar of `Charlie's Angels), the techno-savvy Laila (she's a software freak who knows programming in Cobol, C++) got on to the net recently, and faced the webcam for a live video chat webcast through www.tamilnadulive.com, run by The Apt TV.

Laila participated in the weekly `Arattai' and handled questions with ease, replying mostly in English. In spite of the Broadband limitations, the site claims to have received hundreds of questions that had to be filtered before being passed on to the star.

``Broadband users from all over the world post their questions on our site, even during the show and get them answered,'' as Shankar Bhat, Supervising Producer, Apt TV explains.

``You look very sweet. How is it possible?'' went one of the first questions thrown at her. ``I was born that way,'' Goan Catholic Laila replied. And yes, that is her real name. The ``secret of her beauty'' is not any soap but her ``Mom and Dad''.

Laila currently is shooting for `Nanda' starring Surya, directed by Bala (the man who gave us `Sethu'). ``It is turning out wonderful. Everybody has really good expectations from the film. It is a very good family role. You can call it one of the award winning types,'' she said, keeping her fingers crossed.

The other stars to have participated at Tamilnadulive.com's `Arattai' video chat sessions are Vasundara Das, Abbas, Gautami, Aishwarya, Sneha, Manoj, Vineeth and Monal. The broadband site also has a `Political' section. Recently, the Apt TV organised a live webcast of the video chat with Subramaniam Swamy.

Apart from video chats that can still be accessed from the site, Tamilnadulive.com has regular hourly updates of news stories and daily updates in its entertainment and business sections.

The entertainment section contains songs, film clippings, the latest buzz from the industry, specials, countdowns and request shows apart from the video chats that are a weekly feature.

The site also has a section on `Talent', a platform for aspiring writers, singers, dancers and models. The difference between the regular sites and Tamilnadulive.com being that this is one of the first sites to be truly broadband enabled with a wholesome mix of video, audio and textual content.

By Sudhish Kamath

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