New website

Vijay Antony

The Tamil Nadu Film Directors’ Association made history on Tuesday by becoming the first directors’ association in the country to have a website of its own. The site >www.tantis.org , which has details of all the Tamil films released from the year 1931, was inaugurated at a grand function attended by a host of dignitaries, including directors from the Tamil film industry.

The officials of the association said the website would be used to make public the deals struck between the directors’ association and the producers’ council. It would also have details about the various film festivals happening around the world and the means to get in touch with the authorities organising them. This apart, the site would provide details of laws pertaining to filmmaking and a TV section that could be used to air film functions, trailers and short films. The first programme shown live on the TV section was the audio launch function of director M. Anbazhagan’s Sattai.

Vijay Antony’s next

Buoyed by the success of

Naan , his first film as hero, music director Vijay Antony has announced the title of his next project. “My next film is Thirudan and work on it will begin sometime in November. I’m planning to release it by April next year,” says Vijay, who is extremely pleased with the way things have turned out. Thirudan , he says, will be produced by Vijay Antony Film Corporation in association with another big banner. Before beginning his next film as actor, Vijay wants to complete scoring the music for films such as GNR Kumaravelan’s Haridas and Sundar C’s MGR.

What caused the delay?

Actor Jiiva on Tuesday trashed rumours that actor Samantha’s health condition was what had delayed the release of Gautham Menon’s much-awaited flick,

Neethane En Ponvasantham . “It wasn’t her health. What caused the delay was the strike that hit the industry. The movie is a bilingual and therefore we had to shoot the Tamil and Telugu versions simultaneously. While Samantha and I play the lead in the Tamil version, she and Nani play the lead in Telugu. So, after the original schedule went for a toss because of the strike, it was difficult for the team to get common dates from the three of us,” says Jiiva, who is extremely delighted with the way the film has shaped up. The audio of the film is to release on September 1.