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Track 19 - Tracked on May 24, 1998
Costly costumes, but where are they?
Normally director T.Rajendaran’s movies would
be of very low budget. Only emphasis on his movies would be on his own style of dialogues,
delivered with rhyming Tamil words. 
But this time he has become more liberal for his
current venture "Monisha".
"Monisha" is touted to be a Mega budget
movie with four heroines. Unlike other big budget movies in which the exotic outdoor
settings hog up most of the money, a large chunk of the budget for "Monisha" is said
to be spent on the costumes of its heroines.
Interestingly, the heroines of Monisha are found to
scantily clad in all its still pictures. Viewing those snaps, one wonders how on earth
could they spend so much on the costumes, while all these girls are scarcely covered!
Earlier for his "Kadhalan", director
Shanker once built a bus made with glass. Now on the same lines, T.Rajenderan has a
chain of train compartments in glass for a song sequence in "Monisha".
Mumtaj, another import from Mumbai is one of the
lead ladies of "Monisha". Incidentally, Mumtaj’s original name is Nagma
Khan. To avoid possible confusions with Nagma, she was christianized with Mumtaj as her
new name for Tamil movies.
Image Problem
After his successful role in "Swarnamuki"
nowadays, Prathiban is busy with his "Pudumai Pithan". For this movie he has
started sporting a special beard. Thanks to this beard, he had a great time in Ooty with
his family, without being recognized and bugged by his fans.
"Puthumaipithan" was earlier called as
"Gyana Kirukkan". But since his wife Sita did not approve of that title, he later
changed it into "Pudumaipittan".
Pudumiaipittan has a crowd of three popular
heroines, Roja, Devayani and Gouthami.
One startling news about "Pudumaipittan"
is, Roja plays the role of a whore in the movie, shedding all the fears associated with the so
called "Image Problem" in doing such an off-beat role.
May be Roja wants to carve a niche for herself in
acting like Sabana Ashmi and late Sumita Patel in Bollywood.
It is rose season again!
Last year was
Meena’s year with three of her four movies proving to be box-office hits. May be this
year could be Roja’s one!
Nowadays Roja, the dusky beauty with a magical smile
is signing movies after movies. Her astounding list of movies under production includes,
"En Assai Rajave" with Murali, "Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen" and
"Chinna Roja" with Karthik, "Valli" with Ajeeth Kumar, "Chinna
Durai" with Sarath Kumar and "Pudhumaipittan" with Parthiban.
When asked about the sudden increase in the number
of movies, Roja sighs and maintains that finally time has come for Tamil directors to
recognize her talent.
Also she wants to postpone her looming marriage with
Selvamani to next millennium, because she suddenly enjoys the fact that she is still in
great demand in Tamil.
The Saga Continues...
With Nagma and Sarath around, there is always no
dearth of sensational news in Kodambakkam.
The previous rumor was Nagma has personally
contacted a highly placed political source in Tamil Nadu for police protection for her
house. This was due a scene created by Sarath in front of her residence.
As an aftermath of this incident, it is believed
that Nagma was removed out of Sarath’s movie "Simma Rassi".
But the latest on this saga is, the pair has patched
up again!
According to Sarath , "It's human to get heated up after a squabble. Nagma got a bit
emotional. But let me tell you that what was written about us in the media was highly
exaggerated."
Rani Hindustani
Kodambakkam is certainly facing a tremendous
pressure from Bollywood beauties posing a formidable competition to our heroines. 
Success stories of Kushbu, Nagama and now Simran
have attracted more and more Bollywood belles to try their luck in South.
While Madhuri has been recently taken in Engineer,
Karishma has also joined the gang with "Mudal Mudalaga" directed by Perumal, an
erstwhile assistant to Mani Ratnam.
"Mudal Mudalaga" with Aravind Swamy and
Karishma in the lead roles, will be dubbed in Telugu and Hindi too. A R Rahman is
composing the music.
Once again Aravind Swamy proves to be the lucky man
acting with numerous pretty gals, all of them being Bollywood Queens like Sridevi,
Madhuri, Kajol, Manisha, Juhi Chawla and now the "Rani Hindustani" Karishma
Kapoor.
So much for the popularity of this hunk, even Kushbu
in a recent interview revealed, how much she longs to be paired with Aravind Swamy!
Kallalagar
After the grand success of 'Bharathi Kannamma' and
'Marumalarchi,' Pankaj Production's Henry has signed Vijayakanth to play the lead for his
next Tamil movie, 'Kallamukkar,' directed by "Marumalrchi" fame Bharathi.
Cinematography by Thankar Pachan, music by Deva and
lyrics by Vairamuthu are the other main credits for the movie.
Earlier Vijayakanth was asked to play the lead for
"Marumalarchi". However due to his busy schedules with "Ullavuthurai"
Vijayakanth had to say no for it. But when "Marumalrchi" with a different plot
became a real hit, Vijayakanth later repented over his decision.
Now with "Kallalagar", Vijayakanth is
happy that he could work with such a successful producer like Henry with revolutionary ideas.
Mismatch or a matchless match?
In "Dharma" Vijayakanth has really a
younger heroine for his age, Preetha Vijakumar. After seeing the
stills from the movie, many feel Preetha looking like his daughter, is no match for
Vijayakanth.
However from Preetha’s point of view it is a
great opportunity for her to act with a leading hero like Vijayakanth.
These days, Preetha is thrilled of her sudden success. In her family, both her sisters had to return and stay
at home just after a couple of movies. But in Preetha’s case, she has more than ten
movies in hand both in Tamil and Telugu.
Simran's Insurance
Simran, the current sensation of Tamil movies is 
supposed to be a good Piano player. She claims to
have learned this art from her grand father.
Jyoti, Sonu are Simran’s two sisters. Besides
she has a brother named Sunit. Except Simran and her mother who stay currently in Chennai,
the rest of her family lives in Mumbai.
Simran’s birth day is on April 4. But she does
not celebrate her birthday. Reason? Incidentally April 4 is also the same day when her
grandfather passed away.
Another interesting news about Simran... she has
already insured her beautiful pair of (hey... do not let your imagination run wild!) legs.
Swathi's new role
Since it was from Balachander’s Kavithalalya,
initially Swathi did not mind dancing for a single glamour number in "Thulli Thirinda
Kaalam". While doing that role, she was promised by Balasekaran, the director of the
movie, that Swathi would be the heroine for his next venture.
Swathi feels disappointed now, because Balasekaran did not
keep up his word. Besides, Swathi is even more fuming, especially when she is getting
invitations from several directors just to do a single dance number with revealing
costumes.
Star brother
"Pooniyavadi" is one movie that has been
in the making for more than a year now.
In "Pooniyavadi" Sangeeta is paired with
Maaveeran, a new comer. Interestingly, Sangeeta’s brother Ameetkumar is also making
his debut in Pooniyavadi. Ameet who used to escort his sister is ready now to act in more
movies.
Since Sangeeta has very few movies in Tamil, she is
slowly shifting to Kannada. In Kannada, Sangeeta makes her debut with the leading
hero Ravichandran.
1999 Love Story
Prabhu Deva is doing a bilingual called "1999
Love Story", directed by K. Raghavendra Rao.
Predictably, Raghavendra Rao’s favorite girl
Ramya is the heroine of this movie, made in both Telugu and Tamil.
Of shrunken Jeans
Finally the Mega movie Jeans is here with the
fabulous Aishwarayas and youthful Prashanths. 
Undoubtedly,
the music of A.R. Rahaman is creating waves all over the Tamil world.
But on the flip side, commercially Jeans is
considered to be a box-office failure.
Many blame on its light story line with no
great plot. But the actual reason is... its cost. Astronomical amount of money is spent on
the making of this movie. But when viewing the movie, one wonders where is all that money
gone!
It is reported that a popular producer famous for
his mustache, jeers at the movie saying "The Jeans is new, but its Zip is old."
Also a popular Tamil weekly dubs the movie as
"Zipless Jeans".
The production cost for the movie is so high, people
say it should run packed houses for several months to recover its cost! But unfortunately
that is not what is happening.
Well, a hit or miss, people who watch the movie
return satiated with the mere presence of the beauty Aishwarya, a former Miss World.
But Aishwarya, you certainly deserve more than
that! Yes, you need a hit, a definite hit... that too very badly.
This edition of Star-tracks is tracked from
Kumudam, Anandha Vikatan, Cinema Express and other Internet Sources.
Copyright © 1997-98 by
Chandra Gobichetipal. All rights reserved
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