Shotcuts: Red is ready

Suriya, director Lingusamy and cinematographer Santosh Sivan with the Red Dragon camera

The Tamil film industry has many firsts to its credit. The latest invention the Red Dragon digital camera is to be used for the first time for a Tamil film titled Suriya to be directed by Lingusamy. Celebrated cinematographer Santosh Sivan is to use it after which the camera is to be sent back to Hollywood to be used by popular filmmaker Ridley Scott. Lingusamy said that he was proud that his film was going to be shot first using the camera before others. “I have the best of technicians on board for this film — cameraman Santosh Sivan, music director Yuvan Shankar Raja and editor Antony. Suriya plays the lead, and Samantha, his lady love. The shooting for the film, to be released in May next year, commences on November 15.

Santhanam sings

People in the film industry multi-task. We have seen actors turning directors, directors turning producers, and music directors turning actors and singers. The latest to turn singer is actor Santhanam. Santhanam who has earlier rendered dialogues in songs, has now turned a full-fledged singer lending his voice to actor Srikanth who plays the lead in the film

Nambiyar for which Vijay Antony has scored the music. What’s Vijay’s take on it? Says the composer: “I have made actors sing the songs picturised on them. But here Santhanam is singing for another actor. What’s interesting is he came to the recording theatre and finished the song in less than half an hour. Srikanth who came to see his friend Santhanam sing the song thanked him. I feel the song will be a hit.” Director Ganeshaa says Santhanam plays a role in the film but doesn’t feature in the song sequence. The song, written by Viveka, has a unique style and goes like this: ‘Aara Amara Ukkanthu Sarakkadi Nanba Sarakkadi’.

Suspense thriller

Late scriptwriter Thuyavan saw a foreign film at the International Film Festival of India in New Delhi decades ago. It inspired him so much that he wanted it made in Tamil. He wanted to cast the late MGR as the hero. But due to various factors, his plan changed and it was made as Anbulla Rajinikanth , with Rajinikanth in the lead. Now his son Babu Thuyavan, a film institute product, is directing a film titled Gatham Gatham , the punchline in Rajinikanth’s Baba . The director, who has also written the screenplay, says the film is a suspense thriller. Nanda and Nataraj play important roles, while Tajnoor scores the music. Saindhavi Prakash has sung a song for the film.

Ghibran on cloud nine

It has been music director Ghibran’s dream to score the music for one of Kamal Haasan’s films but he never thought it would come true so soon. He has scored the music for one of the much-awaited films in the history of Tamil cinema Vishwaroopam 2 . Narrating how he received a call from the actor, he says, “When Kamal sir called me I was so nervous I couldn’t even answer him properly. He is an actor who knows music very well. When I met him in his office he made me very comfortable and told me that I was going to score the music for his film. Do I need to say I was on cloud nine? Kamal sir also spoke to me about my music which was like an award to me. I am eagerly waiting for the film’s release”.