Vasundhara's no glam doll

Vasundhara Das has not featured in any Tamil film after Citizen, with Ajith.

Now the actress is getting offers to do Malayalam films. She is working in Jayakrishnan's Akashangalil Parannu Parannu, opposite Mukesh.

Apparently, the reason why Vasundhara is not doing Tamil films is because she's only being offered glamorous roles, which she dislikes.

Raju Sundaram, Prabhudeva to the beat

Choreographer Raju Sundaram's directorial debut, the Tamil film Manasella Neene, stars his brother Nagendra Prasad in the lead, along with sisters Suja and Gayatri Raghuram.

Sundaram also makes a special appearance with a dance sequence with Gayatri, choreographed by his brother Prabhudeva.

The film is a Kannada remake of the Telugu hit Manasendha Nuvve, launched by Prabhudeva.

Suja and Gayatri are daughters of choreographer Raghuram. Gayatri made her debut in the recent Tamil film Charlie Chaplin opposite Prabhudeva. She has also assisted her father for a number of films.

Her next film is Style with choreographer-actor Lawrence Raghavendra, who had a sizeable role in K Balachander's Parthale Paravasam.

It was in Saran's Amarkkalam, that Raghavendra got noticed for his dance number Mahaganapati.

Yet another choreographer's offspring to join the actors' wagon will be Jennifer, daughter of Chinna.

Ahathiyan makes a comedy

Ahathiyan is back to directing Tamil films, after the debacles he had to cope with in the Hindi remakes of Kaadhal Kotai (Sirf Tum) and Gokulathil Seethai (Hum Ho Gaye Aapke), for which he spent three years in Mumbai.

Kaadhal Kotai won a National Award but Sirf Tum, starring Sanjay Kapoor, Priya Gill and Sushmita Sen, was damp squib.

Ahathiyan is making Kaadhal Saamrajyam with newcomers except for Yugendran, who made his debut in Ezhil's Poovellaam Un Vaasam.

All the actors are sons of singers -- SPB Charan (son of S P Balasubramaniam), Venkatprabhu (Gangai Amaran) and Yugendran (Malaysia Vasudevan).

Ahathiyan is defensive about his current project Kaadhal Raajjiyam and swears it is not a serious love story like his previous works. Evidently, it is on the lines of Sridhar's romantic comedy Kaadhalikka Neramillai.

Dharani-Vikram for another film

Dharani, who directed the Vikram starrer Dhill, has announced his next offering Dhool.

The film will star Vikram again. Their association goes back to their college days in Chennai's Loyola College. Vikram plays a villager. The film costars Jyotika and Reema Sen (Minnale).

Incidentally, Dhill will be remade in Telugu Sriram, starring Udaykiron and Anita (the lead pair of the superhit Nuvvu Nenu.

Aditya, who made his debut in the superhit Manasanthanuvve, will direct the film. It will be produced by Burugupali Sivaramakrishna.

Shamita fails to create ripples

Shamita Shetty starred opposite Puratchi Thalaivar Vijaykanth in Rajjiyam, and has not created any ripples in the Tamil industry.

She will be seen soon as a devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba in a Telugu film Piliste Pallukutha, opposite Akash.

Apparently, she is a Shirdi devotee in real life and is only too happy to be one in the film.

United we stand

Shaji Kailash's superhit Malayalam film Valiyettan which released over a year ago, will be dubbed into Telugu as Pandava Samrajyam.

Valiyettan dealt with two warring families and how the brothers (Mammootty, Siddique, Manoj Jayan and Dileep) stand united and win.

Shaji Kailash calls this a socialised version, similar to the epic Mahabharata, with Mammootty in a character similar to Dharmaraja (the Pandav), Saikumar on the lines of Duryodhan (the Kaurav), Kalabhavan Mani in a special role akin to Karna.

Producers C Sudhakar and G Prem Kumar produce the film, with dialogues written by Malluri Venkat.

Vijay in a legal tangle

Vijay played such a heroic role in Thamizhan that a postage stamp was released with his mug on it.

Vijay's father S A Chandrashekhar wrote the screenplay of Thamizhan. Apparently, he has always wanted to make films with legal tangles.

In the film, Vijay sets out to proove that most Indians are not aware of basic laws. How Vijay tries to educate people about their basic rights forms the crux of Thamizhan.

The film was a Tamil New Year release (April 13) but was not promising at the box office. Vijay's next film will be Youth, after which he will act in a film for Venkatesh (who directed Chocklet with Prashant).

Shakeela in a character role

Pandiyaraj will be seen in Hayath's Anbu Thollai. Shakeela has been roped in to do a character role in the film.

The actress is hot in Kerala, and some actors wanted the industry to boycot her as her films were semi-pornographic and said it killed good cinema.

Another one bites the dust

Women directors in the South have an addition. Seshu, the remake of Telugu film Sethu, is a big hit.

Rajasekhar essayed Vikram's role and wife and yesteryear actress Jeevita made her directorial debut in it.

Bala who directed the original, showered praises on Jeevita's work. She now plans her second film Madurai Zilla, a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu. Rajasekhar, of course, will play the lead.

Monal remembered

Actress Monal's last movie was Charlie Chaplin, featuring Prabhudeva, Prabhu, Abhirami and Gayatri Raghuram.

Monal played a small role in the film directed by Shakti Chidambaram. In the film she commits suicide. Apparently, Chidambaram was upset that Monal did commit suicide in real life, especially since his film also shows her committing suicide.

He recalls that the actress wanted to do the death scene either by hanging or an overdose of sleeping tablets.

100 and going strong

K Balachandar's 100th film Parthale Paravasam was a disaster in Tamil Nadu, but it hasn't deterred KB from producing a bunch of movies that will soon go on the floors.

Two of the films are for KB's 'disciples'. One-time assistant Vasant will direct a film with Shaam in the lead. Saran will direct a film with Ajith; Linguswamy will direct a film with Vikram, Selvakumar with Kartik.

Two debutantes will feature with Nakulan directing Murali as the lead artiste. Jayaseelan, onetime assistant of Shankar, will introduce E V V Satyanarayana's son. EVV is a big name in Andhra Pradesh.

K B himself will direct a film with newcomers.

Tulika