The speculation about Deepika Padukone's next film is over.

According to director Gowtham Menon, she will start shooting for his next Tamil film in September. Menon has been planning a film called Chennayil Oru Mazhakkalam (Monsoons in Chennai) for a long time.

The romantic film was supposed to star Surya and Asin. A couple of rainy seasons passed by, but it couldn't be made. Now, Menon wants to make the film with a different title and heroine.

Asin, who is acting in three big films (Pokiri, Dasavtharam and Aalawar) did not have dates to spare for this film.

So now, Deepika has been roped in. The minute his new film Silandhi is complete, he will start shooting his next. When asked how he will film the rain, considering the monsoons will not be around, he replied, "It is only a metaphor in the film."

Now that his most controversial and anticipated film Vettayadu Vilayadu, starring Kamal Haasan [Images], is finally releasing, is he nervous? "I am excited and also very nervous," he signs off.

Fourth hit in a row

Dil Raju certainly has the Midas touch. He has struck gold with his fourth consecutive hit as the producer of Bommarillu, after Dil, Arya and Bhadra.

At a young age, he has made a mark as a successful producer. He encouraged debutant Bhaskar to helm Bommarillu. After the astounding success of Rang De Basanti [Images], Siddharth is going places and, in Bommarillu, proves his mettle once again. Genelia's performance has also been appreciated.

Bommarillu is charting the path of success and time will tell if it will surpass Pokiri's performance at the box office. The story may be a routine one about a father-son relationship, but a fresh treatment has made it magical. 

Darshan, Auditya take up Aamir, Ajay's roles

Kannada actor Darshan, who was earlier against acting in multi-starrers, has made an exception. He will be acting with his best friend Audithya in a new film to be produced by cameraman-producer Anaji Nagaraj. It is a remake of the successful Bollywood film, Ishq, which starred Aamir Khan [Images], Ajay Devgan [Images], Kajol [Images] and Juhi Chawla [Images].

Darshan will play Aamir's role, while Audithya will play Ajay's.

Darshan and Auditya have been close buddies from the days they were together in Mysore. Audithya, whose recent film Mohini is doing very well at the box office, is thrilled about working with Darshan. 

Mammootty-Srinivasan together

It was the Mohanlal-Srinivasan team, with Srinivasan doubling as the writer, that created magic in the 1980s and early 1990s. Even today, films like Nadodikkattu, Pattanapravesam, and many others are watched by many.

The black comedies and dialogues laced with satire were delivered excellently by the two and the kind of timing and understanding they had was excellent. Mohanlal was in his 20s then, and Srinivasan in his early 30s.

Though Srinivasan was a friend of Mammootty's, he knew no one could beat Mohanlal in comedy. So, he wrote such scripts only to make films with Mohanlal. Srinivasan wrote scripts for Mammootty too, but they were never comedies.

Now, this Onam, Srinivasan is partnering with Mammootty in a comedy called Bhargava Charitham Moonnam Khandam. It will be interesting to see whether there is magic between these actors in this genre.

Reports have come trickling in that the film is, unfortunately, not as good as we hoped it would be.

Inputs from Radhika Rajamani, R G Vijayasarathy and Shobha Warrier