Big-screen tidbits compiled by F20BIZ TEAM
- THE men in white, Abbas-Mastan, are planning to remake the Hollywood flick The Italian Job. For the Bollywood version, the ace directors have signed the brilliant cast of Neil Nitin Mukesh, Katrina Kaif and Abhishek Bachchan. The remainder of the cast has yet to be finalised.
- SAIF Ali Khan is upset with an Indian news channel that zoomed into Kareena Kapoor's personal space as she was sending Khan an SMS that read "You were rude Saif, I am upset." The camera was also quick to catch Khan's response, which read "Sorry baby ...was talking about your role only." Seems like the lovebirds were having a tiff.
- TO CATER for an international audience, the Hrithik Roshan-Barbara Mori movie Kites will now be made in English. While the Bollywood version has been directed by Anurag Basu of Gangster fame, the English version will be made by Brett Ratner, the director of Rush Hour and X-Men - The Last Stand. Produced by Hrithik's dad Rakesh Roshan, the delayed project also has Kangana Ranaut in a leading role.
- AISHWARYA Rai Bachchan has opted out of Crooked, a thriller in which she was meant to be paired opposite Abhi- shek Bachchan, as her dates were clashing with Vipul Shah's movie about time travel, Action Replay. A search is on to replace to the actress for this movie that also stars Farhan Akthar and will be directed by Abhinay Deol, the new director in Bollywood who is also making Aamir Khan's next home production, Delhi Belly.
- AFTER the success of her directorial debut earlier this year with Luck by Chance, Zoya Akthar has finalised the leading men in her next venture titled Running With The Bulls. Once again, brother Farhan Akthar will be part of the cast, together with Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol. Incidentally, Farhan Akthar confirmed that he intended to shoot his sequel to Don in September 2010.
- THE success of Quick Gun Murugan has encouraged the production of a full-length spoof of Tamil cinema titled Thamizh Padam, which will be released on December 18 along with Vijay's Vettaikaaran. The spoof is going to be made along the lines of Hollywood spoofs, and sources reveal that the main character is a spoof of Illaiya Thallabadhi Vijay. Others who will come under the spotlight in the film are Rajni- kanth, Kamalhassan, Vikram , Ajithkumar and Surya.
- KAMALHASSAN'S lady friend, Gouthami, is to make her return to acting albeit through the small screen. Rama- nathan, the owner of Purusavakkam's Abirami Mega Mall, has already entered film production through Panjaamirtham and has also produced an earlier TV series called Devathai. Now he plans a memorable return with big-budget productions, the first of which will see Gouthami in the lead role. The series creative head will be Kutty Padmini, wife of South African Prabhu Nepaul. The series will be aired on Kalainyar TV.
- PAANDIRAJ, the director of the critically acclaimed Pasanga, has bagged the Golden Elephant award at the 16th International Film Festival in Hyderabad. Produced by actor Sasi-kumar, Pasanga has won many accolades and plans are afoot to submit the film to international film festivals.
- KARTHIK Kumar has finally bagged a lead role after playing supporting roles in numerous films. His last screen appearance in Ninai- thale Inikkum has earn- ed him many accolades and was directly responsible for landing him his first lead role. Titled Yedhuvum Nadakkum, the film is directed by debutante K Maheshwaran, a former assistant to Vasanthabalan. According to Maheshwaran, Yedhuvum Nadakkum is "an Alfred Hitchcock-style suspense thriller with supernatural elements". The movie is scheduled to be released this Friday.
- THE greatly anticipated sequel to Naan Avanillai, titled Naan Avanillai 2, has been given an Adults Only tag by the censor board. The board was unhappy about the glamour quotient by the film's five lead ladies, Sangeetha, Lakshmi Rai, Swetha Menon, Hema Malini and Rachna Maurya. The film, which released this weekend, has music by Vijay Anthony.
