Damsel in distress
She lends that touch of glamour to an otherwise harried lot of passengers in a hijacked Starjet flight in director Radha Mohan's Payanam. Sana Khan's journey in the company of a handsome doctor, Rishi, was obviously made more interesting when the divine-looking NSG commando, in the form of Nagarjuna, came to the rescue of the terrorised passengers. “My journey through Payanam was quite eventful under the guidance of producer Prakash Raj and director Radha Mohan. But, the icing on the cake was starring with Nagarjuna, an actor whom I had idolised for years,” says Sana. She is one damsel in distress who enjoyed being rescued.
Time's ticking away
Producer-director-music composer A. S. Geethakrishna is waiting to see his pet tri-lingual creation, Nimidangal, come alive on the silver screen by the end of January. Titled Coffee Bar in Telugu and Coffee Shop in Kannada, the movie features Atul Kulkarni, Shashank, Bianka Desai and Suman in stellar roles, and tells us a thing or two about terrorism. “I have shown how mindpower works when unsuspecting civilians are influenced to be part of a large terrorist operation. I have also said that a terrorist, when caught, should be shot dead, rather than be arrested and released after years of trials in courts of law. I have used real-life incidents like those which happened in Coimbatore many years ago and the recent Mumbai attacks as the basis of my story,” says Geethakrishna.
Nimidangal , produced by his Blue Fox Cinema, has received a UA certification and will be released simultaneously in all three languages.
All in the genes
Born to illustrious poet Vairamuthu, it's only natural for Madhan Karky to take to writing lyrics. Educated in Australia and working as an assistant professor in the computer science department at Anna University, Karky got a chance to prove his mettle when director Shankar asked him to write a song, apart from the dialogues, for Enthiran . “I have been writing stories for almost eight years. Then came the chance to write dialogues for movies. Lyric-writing is only a recent development. That's how ‘Irumbile Or Irudhayam' for Enthiran happened. This made me realise that I have it in me to write lyrics. I have penned some songs for Ko, Engeyum Kaadhal and Payanam . Currently, I am working on the dialogues for the Tamil version of 3 Idiots ,” informs Karky. Strengths? “Writing dialogues. But, I am attempting screenplay for a film by Anand Krishnan, titled Gora ,” says Karky.
Keeping dates
The Kingfisher calendar has been in the news for many years for the bikini-clad models and celebrity photographers, not to mention the high-flying Vijay Mallya whose brainwave the project was. Not to be left out, two of Chennai's celebrity photographers have jumped on the bandwagon to come up with their signature creations on calendars.
G. Venket Ram decided to rope in Kollywood's most famous stars and shoot them alongside exquisite yesteryear automobiles. Said Venket, “It's more to do with the shapes and forms of vintage cars than the power aspect. The message would simply be ‘beauty of forms'. Each composition captures the attitude and body language of the actor against the classy vehicles.”
Meanwhile, T. Selvakumar, a close associate of A. R. Rahman launched his 2011 calendar with Rahman as the central theme. “Rahman wanted me to showcase some of his closest singers and musicians. The proceeds from the sale of this calendar will go towards the A. R. Rahman Foundation,” says Selvakumar (in pic).
