Welcome to The Friday Roundup – your weekly summary of what’s been happening in both Bollywood and Kollywood!
Happy Birthday SRK!
Screen icon Shah Rukh Khan celebrated his 46th birthday earlier this week, though he tweeted saying that he didn’t feel any older or wiser. The star later tweeted a picture of him by a gate with the caption "Dancing for my loved ones…celebrated my birthday with all on bandstand" as he went to greet the many fans who had gathered outside his house. The star is currently celebrating the success of his latest film Ra.One, which – according to screendaily.com – raked in a whopping $35million internationally in the first 5 days of its release!
Don 2
On the subject of SRK, the trailer for his film "Don 2 – The Chase Continues" was recently released. The film is a sequel to the 2006 film "Don – The Chase Begins", and is an action thriller directed by Farhan Akhtar. Starring alongside Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta, Om Puri and Kunal Kapoor, SRK will be reprising his role as elusive criminal Don. The film is slated for a December 2011 release. Check out the trailer below:
Singam 2?
Speaking of sequels, over in Kollywood the buzz is that actress Amala Paul (Deiva Thirumagal) will be starring alongside actor Suriya in (the tentatively-titled) Singam2. Anushka Shetty starred opposite Suriya in the 2010 release "Singam", which was such a resounding success that it was remade in Kannada (Kempegowda), Bengali (Shotru) and Hindi (Singham). Further details about the sequel are yet to be confirmed, but we will keep you updated!
Condolences to Ilayaraja
We were all shocked and saddened to hear that Jeeva Ilayaraja, wife of the esteemed music director Ilayaraja, passed away earlier this week after suffering a cardiac arrest. I’m sure you will all join us in sending our best wishes and prayers to Ilayaraja, his sons Yuvan Shankar Raja and Karthik Raja, daughter Bhavatharini, and the rest of their family during this difficult time.
Another remake!
Many Tamil films including Kaakha Kaakha, Singam and Gajini have been remade up north in Bollywood, and now hit film "Mankatha" – which was the 50th film for actor ‘Thala’ Ajith – is to be remade too! The film is an action thriller centred around gambling and had a star-studded cast including Trisha Krishnan, ‘Action King’ Arjun and Andrea Jeremiah amongst others. The producer Gnanavel Raja has bought the Bollywood remake rights, but further details are yet to be confirmed. We can’t wait to see which stars will be roped in for this film!