Reel Talk -Virumaandi goes abroad

High on the critical and commercial success of 'Virumaandi', Kamal Haasan is on a 25 days' trip to the US, where he's screening his film at places like New York, California, Washington and Los Angeles. The Hollywood screening will have top actors and bigwigs of the Hollywood film industry viewing it. Next on the anvil is a trip to Holland, where he's planning to screen the film at the international film festival to be held there.

Abhirami loses out

Many girls had been screen-tested for Gautham Menon's Surya-starrer, 'Chennaiyil Our Mazhai Kaalam'. They had tested Abhirami too for the lead against Surya, and Gautham had even expressed his satisfaction. But when the film was on the floors it was Asin (the Malayalee girl who's making it big in Telugu films) who bagged the role. Asin, incidentally, is also acting in 'Kakka Kakka's Telugu version, which Gautham is directing. There's many a slip between the cup and the lip, and Abhirami's loss has been Asin's gain!

Arun Kumar awaits rebirth

Arun Kumar is anxiously waiting for the release of 'Jananam', which has him in a challenging role, and might well prove to be a turning point in his career. Some portions are yet to be shot, but the hitch is that the film's heroine, Priyanka Trivedi, had recently married Upendra, the popular hero and director of Kannada films, and getting dates from her has become a difficult task. But the makers are on a compromise move.

Simran keeps date

But producer Pyramid Natrajan's experience has been different. His production venture, the Vijay-Simran-starrer, 'Udaya', has been stalled for some time due to various hassles. And when Simran got married, it looked like he'll never be able to complete it. But now matters are moving positively for the producer, and Simran has doled out dates for the film after she returns to Chennai after her honeymoon abroad. Here's one producer-artiste hassle that has a happy ending!

Sabu to direct Malayalam movie

He's designed sets for films in all the four south Indian languages and for Hindi films too. And he has two national awards under his belt. Now Sabu Cyril takes a break and ventures into directing. His maiden venture is a Malayalam film, which has Prithwiraj, Biju Menon, Manoj K Jayan and Meera Jasmin in the cast. The film has music by Vidyasagar and camerawork by Thiru. Sabu has impressed us with his sets in films like 'Boys', and one can be sure the same meticulousness and sense of commitment would go into his scripting too!

Gauthami back with Kamal

Kamal Haasan had given Rohini a significant role in 'Virumaandi'. And actresses can now hope for new offerss. According to the grapevine Gauthami will get to play a crucial character in Kamal's next film, which is a comedy. Abhirami hasn't stopped singing his praise, for he'd dared to taking her for his film when most of the makers had neglected her. Kamal needs to be commended for giving talent its due, ignoring the so-called commercial consideration.