KollyBurst 11

GV Prakash croons for AR Rahman

It was nearly 17 years ago that we heard the voice of a kid who started the lyrics to the superhit song “Chikku Bukku Chikku Bukku Raile!” from Gentlemen, that kid is none other than India’s young Music Director GV Prakash, the son of AR Rahman’s elder sister, Raihanah. The talented composer has given us back to back hits starting with “Veyil” (Bharath) all the way to the latest, “Madharasapattinam” (Arya).

After many years, he has been asked to sing under his uncle, double Academy Award and Grammy Winner ARRahman. The Music Wizard has composed an album for the prestigious Ulaga Tamil Chemozhi Manadu which is to be organized by the Tamil Nadu Government in June. This is not the first time the Prakash has sung under another music director, his previous outings were in “Anniyan” and “Unnale Unnale” under Harris Jayaraj.

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Another singer turns music director

TK Karthik mainly known as “Karthik” has sung many songs in all Indian languages and that too under top music directors. The handsome singer who girls have an eye on, will become music director for a movie.

Director Vasanthabalan who gave us “Angadi Theru” recently, has started on his new project. Although the director has worked with some top music mirectors, he has decided to let Karthik make his debut as music director in his forthcoming film.

It is known that Karthik composed for a Coca Cola advert in India last year, which starred actor Vijay.

With singers such as Srinivas, Yugendran, Hariharan, Devan and now Karthik becoming music directors, could this be a start to a new trend?

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Singer Swetha to tie the knot

Singer Swetha, the pretty daughter of famous singer Sujatha got engaged at a grand function in Chennai to a lucky fiancé called Ashwin. The engagement was attended by close friends as well as many singers. The plan is to have the grand wedding in January 2011.

Swetha, the winner of last year’s state award in Kerala, has many hits under her belt especially from films such as Kireedom (Ajith, Trisha) and Pirivom Santhipom (Cheran). Her latest song is from the film “Thamizh Padam” where she sung “Oh Maha Zeeya” with Hariharan.

The Thamarai team wishes her a blissful married life.

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Exploding Vikram!

After spending a great amount of time finishing Mani Ratnam’s bi-liguual, Raavan, as both a hero and a villain, Chiyaan Vikram is back in Chennai to commence work on his next Tamil flick. The popular actor has started preparations with Director Boopathy Pandian on “Vedi.”

Just like the title, Vikram will be exploding with action in this film alongside Goan hottie Ileana D’Cruz (Kedi). Vikram will be playing the role of a police officer, quite similar to his role in Saamy.

Since Vikram and Ileana have large fan base in the Telugu Industry, the director has decided to dub the film in Telugu too. To make things easier, comedy will be taken care by Tollywood comedian Brahmandam with Kota Sreenivasa Rao and Ravi Raja in villain roles as they are popular in Telugu films. Music will be by the young peppy Devi Sri Prasad. The shoot is due to commence in June.

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Vijay’s 50th – Sura

The highly anticipated Sura is out worldwide, though initial reviews have not been very healthy. Sura (Vijay) is part of a fishing village and Sura means ‘Shark’. He plays the role of a guy who is loved by all, due to his strong views and protective nature over his village. His lady love is Poornima (Tamannaah). As developers want to turn the village into a business centre, the story plots Sura’s fight to save his neighbourhood.

The beautiful Tamannaah Bhatia is Ilayadalapathi Vijay’s co-star in this movie speaks about her character: “My character is a cute girl — rich and flamboyant who falls in love with a fisherman.” About the media shy Vijay, she says: “I found him to be very calm but spontaneous during the shot. He’s forever thinking of new nuances which would accentuate the scene. His dance is impeccable. I have never seen anybody dancing as gracefully as him.”

Vijay has always been keen on entering politics and this film seems to pave the way for this potential career for the young man who has such a massive following worldwide. The dialogue is especially politically charged and we may see him running in elections soon.

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Singer Vijay Yesudas turns actor

We always knew that Vijay Yesudas, son of the veteran singer, was good looking and had oodles of charisma, but he remained reticent about acting. Director Nandakumar Kavil, has managed to convince him to act on his film, Avan.

The unusual story-line  revolves around a reality show in which prison convicts showcase their singing talents. Vijay will play a singer and seems thrilled about it, but says it’s a one off: “I’m just doing Avan for the heck of it. I have no plans to do movies full time as I have to look after my career as a singer. Please don’t make me out to be the next Mammootty and Mohanlal.”

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Shankar Mahadevan sings in the Tamil Raavana

AR Rahman picked a new set of voices for the Tamil version of Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan. Vijay Prakash (Jai Ho, Hosanna) will sing ‘Veera’, the Tamil version of Beera, Karthik will be retained for Usure Pogudhey (the Tamil version of Behene De) and Shreya Ghosal will sing ‘Kalvare’, the Tamil version of British Asian singer Reena Bhardwaj’s Khili re.

Benny Dayal, will also join the soundtrack, Raihanah and Tanvi Shah (who was part of the Oscar and Grammy winning Jai Ho), will also sing, while Anuradha Sriram is back with AR Rahman, after a long time. Shankar Mahadevan, the singer, turned music director will also lend his voice to Raavanan, again joining AR Rahman after a long hiatus.

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Happy Birthday Ajith

Born in Secunderabad, Andra Pradesh, to a Tamil Iyer father and Sindhi Mother, Ajith was raised in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He initially wanted a careed in motor-car racing, then worked as an actor in advertising and then got into movies full time. After sustaining many injuries through racing, he fell into movies full-time and his movie Aasai propelled him into success. Known as ‘Thala’ to his numerous fans and the husband to former actress, Shalini (who he fell for during the shoot of Amarkalam), he is back into racing with Formula 2 this year and had a pending 50th movie, helmed to be with director Gautham Menon.

It is his birthday on 1st May and the entire Thamarai team wish him a very happy birthday.

Words: Nish Raj

Nish Raj (Nishanthan Rajakumar), a British born Tamil, has always had a keen interest in Tamil culture, especially in film and music. Being a mridangam player and a drummer, Nish has performed at many shows, be it with singers from the Tamil Film Industry or his local Tamil community. With a huge interest in Tamil films (especially being a Vijay fan), he also broadcasted on a West London FM station and gives us his weekly KollyBurst columns.