An Unofficial Portal for all things related to upcoming movies of Rajini

Folks, it cannot get any better than this. Latest buzz in the filmi circles is that, none other than Kamalhassan will feature in Robot. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, sources close to Shankar’s camp said that Kamal was approached to lend his voice for Jeeno, the robotic puppy that is playing a pivotal role in the movie. Kamal enthusiastically agreed to play this role. He reportedly even went for a voice test that happened in Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad last month, where he tried different modulations of his voice. Both Kamal and Shankar were quite happy with the results, we hear.

There is a trend in hollywood to use superstars’ voice for animated movies. Such movies turned out to be huge blockbusters. To name a few, Shrek, The Bee Movie, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale are such movies. Super stars such as Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro who lent their voices added life to the movie, so to speak. Shankar is introducing another hollywood phenomenon to Indian cinema. Hats off to him!

Jeeno the robotic dog, was an important character in Sujatha’s original ‘En Iniya Iyanthiraa’, a novel on which the Robot movie is based. This character reached such a cult status, that Sujatha named the sequel after the dog ‘Meedum Jeeno’. This character captured the readers’ imagination in that legendary novel. We have to wait and see if Shankar can recreate that magic in silver screen.

There is no better person to lend the voice for Jeeno than Kamal. I remember a hilarious scene in Punnagai Mannan where Kamal playing the role of Chaplin Chellappa, tries hard to pacify a crying child. He would mimic different animals like a dog, a rooster and a monkey, to make that kid smile. He amazed with me with the perfection that he brought to the not-so-important scene of the movie. Lets see if he can use his animal instincts to add depth to Jeeno’s character in Robot. Cant’ wait to see!!!

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Looks like the Rajini mania has spread as far and wide till South Africa. The visiting South African team’s fast bowler Ntini has recently confessed his obsession to the superstar’s movies and his style in particular.

Ntini sure seems to be fond of Rajinikanth’s style statements and demonstrates the actor’s famous finger tricks for Baba.

Besides, he makes people drop their jaw by imitating the ‘Peraketaale Summa Adirudilla’ tagline from the last year blockbuster Sivaji flawlessly that stands proof to the number of times he watched the movie. Apart from Sivaji, Ntini also declares that he has watched Baba many times from where he picked up the finger gesticulation. Ntini’s revelation has earned him many amused fans in Chennai where he is stationed along with his team for the first test cricket series against India.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s cup of joy overfloweth! The gorgeous actress said that the main reason for her accepting the film Robot is none other than the Super Star himself.

While Ash had several offers in the past to work with Rajini, none worked out. “At every phase of my career I’ve been offered something with him. All those projects fell through. There was no way I was going to say no this time”, the actress said.

“I can proudly say I’ve worked with the stalwarts of North Indian and South Indian cinema - Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikant! What more could I ask for ?” said a visibly thrilled beauty queen.

The Telugu version of Kuselan was formally launched in a star studded function in Hyderabad. The function took place at Hyderabad’s opulent convention center Hitex. This event was well attended by who’s who of Telugu filmdom. Some prominent personalities that attended the function were Telugu Mega Star Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh, Ram Charan, Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Mr.ChandraBabu Naidu, Union Minister Mr.Dasari Narayana Rao.

This function turned out to be an spectacular extravaganza with formal sit-down dinner served complete with wine. Those who spoke on the occasion heaped praise on the producer of the movie and owner of Vyjayanthi movies Mr. Aswini Dutt. Though Aswini is popular in Hyderabad for organizing such trendy events and his marketing abilities, this particular one exceeded his own standards.

The Super Star was in quite a humorous mood, I would say. He seemed to enjoy the company and the attention he was getting. He recalled an incident where his friend Mohan Babu suggested that Rajini should stick to Tamil movies. Though he didn’t mention him by name but chose to refer him as his best friend, it was an easy guess for everyone that Rajini was talking about Mohan Babu. He said at a time when he was shuttling between Chennai and Hyderabad for acting in Tamil and Telugu movies simultaneously, Mohan Babu pointed out the ugly politics that is rampant in Telugu movie industry and he suggested it is better that Rajini concentrates on Tamil movies only. At one point, a prominent producer wanted to cast Rajini as a hero in a Telugu movie for which he was going to give 1.5 acres of land in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills area as his remuneration. That was several years ago and Mohan Babu said it was such a cheap place and that producer is cheating Rajini by giving him land in a worthless area. Recalling this incident, Rajini said, “I think my friend thought I would be a threat to his popularity in Telugu cinema, that he wanted to keep me away from Telugu movies!”. At once the entire audience burst into laughter. FYI, Jubilee Hills is Hyderabad’s most expensive neighborhood and an acre there costs several crores now.

The Telugu version of Katha Parayambol is directed by P.Vasu as well. The barber’s role goes to Jagapati Babu. Guess what is the title of the Telugu version? Thats right, it is ‘Kucheludu’.

It is expected that the inaugural pooja of the mega movie ‘Robot’ will happen around April 14 and the movie will go to the floors by the month of May. The photo-shoot was held last month at AVM Studios. The music director A.R. Rahman too will start his work for the movie soon.

The unit faces a challenging task of fine tuning the dialogues due to the unexpected demise of writer Sujatha, whose knowledge on scientific matters and the writing skills cannot find a parallel in the Industry.

Super Star is expected to finish his portions in ‘Kuselan’, which is scheduled to hit the screens by August,  before ‘Robot’ goes to the floors by May.

Dr Gayathri Srikanth has made an interesting revelation in her book, on the Super Star saying `No’ to the CM post, when it came his way thro’ the then Prime Minister of India, Mr P V Narasimha Rao.

It happened in 1995, as has been penned in the biography of Rajini, titled The Name is Rajnikanth, when the then PM called Rajini over phone and expressed his desire to offer him the CM post n behalf of the Congress. It was the time when the Super Star was gaining support in his open attack on then CM Jayalalitha and was seen as a Congress sympathizer. Rajini, is believed to have sought for some time to think it over and decide upon it. Rao had suggested him to meet in person when he drops in Chennai to discuss further.

A meeting between the two happened in the Congress headquarters when Rajini said no to the offer. Super Star also opined that G K Moopanar would be an ideal choice for the CM post and also suggested an alliance with the DMK and give them another chance (Congress was in alliance with the ADMK then)

But Rao was not favoring those suggestions especially offering another chance to the DMK since it was almost 3 decades then the Congress was out of power in the State. While he was keen in getting the Congress to emerge as a power, which would be easy, should Rajini enter the fray directly,  he was not so keen in announcing GK Moopanar as the CM candidate.

Therefore he decided otherwise and the rest is history.

Now, Rajini’s refusal is boon or bane for him ?

The much awaited biography on Rajinikanth “The Name is Rajinikanth” was released in a colorful function at Taj Connemara yesterday. Veteran journalist & actor Cho Ramaswamy released the book and Rajini’s daughter Ms. Soundarya Rajinikanth received the book. The function was attended by many film personalities including AVM Saravanan, K.S.Ravikumar, K. Balachander & Sivakumar.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr.Cho said, contrary to the popular misconception, he does not advise Rajini on political matters. Although Rajini consults many on politics he is capable of making his own decisions. Urging Rajini to enter active politics, he said when he enters politics he can become an able administrator like Narendra Modi of Gujarat. Through his efficient administration he can turn Tamilnadu into another Gujarat, Mr. Cho said.

Authored by Dr.Gayathri Srikanth and published by Om Books International, “The Name is Rajinikanth” has created a huge interest among Rajini’s fans and public in general.

As mentioned earlier, the launch of the next film of the Super Star, Kuselan, was made 9.30 am sharp today in AVM studios. It was stars all around for the function to witness the launch amidst a packed crowd of media personnel - close to about 500 of them from Print, Internet and visual media from all over India, with a couple of Channels carrying live feed too.
Most surprisingly the media was gifted with an interview with the Super Star (something which is a rarity) and with pleasure he spoke few words about the banner and the film.

“I’m proud to work for my guru KB and his banner Kavithalaya“, Rajini said. “They have produced films for me which not only gave me money but the celebrity status too. While the elders and educated were impressed with the film Sri Raghavendra, I felt proud when Sivaji Ganesan and Dr Rajkumar spoke high about my performance in Netrikan. Annamalai gave me the Super Star status - but it was Muthu which earned me international fame and recognition. The films I’ve done for KB has been milestones and turning point in my film career”

Speaking about Kuselan he said, “Many talk about my character in this film. I tell you it is going to be an important character which is going to be spoke about much once the film is released. It is a role which my fans and public would enjoy the most. But going by the story line, 50% contribution is from Pasupathy, while myself and Vadivelu would share the rest.

Meena  is the heroine of the movie. She acted with me as a child artist and then paired with me - and now a mother’s role - (after his trademark laughter) - not for me, ofcourse, but for two children in this movie.

Just like in Chandramukhi, you are going to witness a startling climax in this movie too. Rest assured, this would turn out to be a good movie.“, Super Star opined.

On his part director Vasu “confirmed”that this is a typical Rajini film. “Don’t worry about his role in this movie at all” he said. It is a role designed to satisfy the Super Star himself as his fans. There is nothing like small or big role. Just as Chandramukhi, this is going to be a Rajini movie altogether“ assured P Vasu.

It is learnt that there would be two stunts in this movie (one to be done by Thalapathy Dinesh) and five songs. Rajini stars in four of this five songs including a couple of duets with Nayan. Super Start has agreed to extend his call-sheet by 5 more days to accommodate the change in script, which he agreed after listening to the director about the reasons for such changes from the original script.

Come August it is going to be another entertaining stuff from the Super Star.

Director P Vasu has officially announced that the shoot of Kuselan would start from today (7th March). The inaugural pooja is set to be conducted, as usual with all Rajini films, in the temple of Lord Ganesha in AVM studios.

The delay in commencement of the shoot was mainly due to the conflict over the director’s wish of changing the original script to suit Rajini, which didn’t go well with the Super Star. He didn’t want to make any change to the original Malayalam script and is learnt to have offere call-sheet of only 15 days for this film. The conflict has since been settled and the film goes for shoot from today.

All the actors, including Nayan Thara and Meena are set to attend the inaugural pooja, which is scheduled between 9.30 to 10.30 am today. The venue of the pooja was changed from Ramoji Rao film city in Hyderabad to AVM Studios in Chennai to make it convenient to Rajini.

Robot movie commenced this week with a photo shoot scheduled in a hugely erected set in AVM studios by Cabu Syril. Sources said that make up tests are being taken with the Super Star trying various hairstyles. At this time only Rajini is participating in the shoot. Next schedule of the photo shoot is tentatively organized in May during which Aishwariya Rai is expected to participate.

In other news Thiru replaces Nirav Shah as the cameraman. Thiru is quite a busy bee these days.  Hindi movie Bhool Bhulaiya (Chandramukhi in Tamil) is one of his big recent hits.