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Mohanlal is all set to play the lead role in an English film. The Mollywood buzz has it that the highly talented actor would play the lead role in a film titled Nineteenth Stop. The film would-be based on a story written by the celebrated Malayalam writer M T Vasudevan Nair. Asin might play his ladylove in the movie.

In probably the last awards announced for Malayalam films of 2006, Mammootty and Padmapriya shared the honors for the best actors. The Mathrubhumi-PSS Limited awards that were announced yesterday selected Mammootty, the best actor for his meticulous performance in Palunku, while Padmapriya was adjudged the best actress for the character portrayed in Vadakkumnaathan. Lal Jose directed Classmates which was also the biggest hit of the year was named as the best film. Sathyan Anthikkad bagged the best director award for Rasathanthram.

The other awards include
• Jagathy Sreekumar (Best supporting Actor-Palunku)
• Muthu Mani (Best supporting actress-Rasathanthram)
• Gireesh Puthenchery (Best scripts-Vadakkumnathan)
• Johnson (Music direction-Photographer)
• Vayalar Sharath (Lyrics-Classmates)
• Vineeth Sreenivasan, Manjari (Best playback singers)

Mohanlal and Major Ravi will get special awards for their work in Rasathanthram and Keerthi Chakra, respectively. The awards will be distributed in the second week of October at Kochi.

The first copy of Dharma Entertainment's 'Naag Nagin" (Bhojpuri) is due and the film is slated to be released all over in the first week of October. The film is being produced by Dharma Ramani and Written & Directed by Raj Kumar Pandey. It stars - Krishna Abhishek, Kashmira Shah (Her first Bhojpuri Venture) with Upasna Singh, Brijesh Tripathi, Gopal Roy, Bhanu Aggarwal, Sanjay Manihar, Rekha Sahai and Sambhavna Seth. It has music by Dhananjay Mishra, Lyrics by - Vinay Bihari and Vipin Bahar, Choreography by Pappu Khanna & Kanu Mukherjee and the action master is Kinder Singh.
The two Shahenshahs of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, will lock horns this Diwali at the box office. Shah Rukh starrer ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Gangotri’ with Amitabh Bachchan in the lead are set to release on the same day during Diwali. It’s been long in news that ‘Om Shanti Om’ would release around Diwali and now producer of ‘Gangotri’, Deepak Sawant has decided to release his film on the same day. “I have no issues releasing it on the same day. Jaise Shah Rukhji ka naam hai waise Amit ji ka bhi naam hai. Amitji koi kam nahin,” says Sawant. “A multiplex can screen all three movies at the same time. It will be up to the audiences to watch the movie they like. If ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Saawariya’ can run to packed theaters then the audience would definitely come to see my film or vice versa. This had happened when ‘Ganga’ was released. Theatres screening ‘Ganga’ were filled up first and then people saw ‘Don’,” says Sawant. Interestingly ‘Don’ and ‘Ganga’ were released during Diwali last year. Sawant had decided to go ahead with his plan to make the sequel in two languages as there were huge demands.“My film has audience from all sections of the society. But affluent people cannot go to theatres, which screen Bhojpuri films. I also found that people who speak other languages watched ‘Ganga’ too,” explains Sawant.It would be interesting to see, who wins the competition at the box office: Shah Rukh with his ‘Om Shanti Om’ or Amitabh Bachchan with ‘Gangotri’. Or will it be Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Saawariya’, playing the monkey as two cats fight!

The Chennai based Roma who shot to fame in Malayalam films is now making her debut in Kannada. Roma has been signed up to be the heroine in 'Aramane' opposite golden star Ganesh. The plump girl had made her debut in Malyalam with Note Book in which she played a school girl and now she is shooting with Pritviraj in 'Chocolate'. Her film with Dileep July 4 was a hit. She is now entering the 'Palace' – that is 'Aramane'. She is again lucky to act opposite the most popular and much sought after hero golden star Ganesh. She plays the grand daughter of versatile actor Ananthnag in 'Aramane'.
Shriya is on a roll! From relative obscurity after doing more than a dozen films in Telugu, she has risen to the top slot in Tamil cinema through one film- Rajnikanth's Sivaji. Just being paired with Rajnikanth has given her high voltage screen coverage and resurrected her sagging career. The kind of coverage and reach that `Sivaji` gave her, has made her some kind of demi-goddess in Tamilnadu. After being washed away by Mazhai, Shriya made a fantastic come back and took over the number one heroine slot from Asin and Trisha. Overnight she became a rage and signed two big films- Azhagiya Tamizh Mahan and Kandasamy with top heroes Vijay and Vikram. And producers were willing to pay her a bomb, twice what they were paying other heroines. Shriya was truly on velvet and threw her weight around and also became far too demanding, according to Kollywood sources. The grapevine has it that she did not want the south Indian designers like Nalini Sriram or Anu to do her costumes, and instead demanded for Manish Malhotra (who did her Sivaji costumes) or a Neeta Lulla! But Tamil producers put their foot down, which caused a lot of heartburn. And her heroes were also feeling the heat, when she almost signed to do an item number in a top comedian's film where he is in the hero's role! A top hero who was to do a film with her to be directed by a choreographer immediately told his London based producer to remove her from the project. But soon, better sense prevailed and the latest news is that Shriya refused to do this item number in the comedian's film for which she was offered a mind boggling amount!

Sada, of Anniyan fame is doing her first Malayalam film titled Novel for producer and debutant director Vijayan East Coast.The hero is Jayaram, and the shoot of the film is progressing in Thiruvananthapuram.Sada has a significant role in Novel, as Priya Nandini an introvert who gets into the life of a famous novelist Sethumadhavan played by Jayaram. The others in the cast are Sari, Nedumudi Venu Baiju Kurup, Ganesh. It has music by M.Jayachandran and camera by Azhagappan.Vijayan East Coast a writer and an NRI has paid Sada, a bomb to act in Malayalam films(earlier she had done an item song in a Joshi film). Says Sada: " I decided to do Novel only after I read the script, which I think is very good."
Shots : Hariharan
Producer : Gokulam Gopalan
Story & Screenplay : Njanpith M.T. Vasudevan Nair
Music : Ilayaraja
Lyrics : O.N.V Kurup Cinematography : Venu
Hariharan's Magnum Opus Pazhassi Raja will be the Christmas film of Mammootty according to the latest schedules. The film which will be completed in a whooping five crore budget will hit the screens on the 25th of December. The film which is produced by Gokulam Gopalan is now being shot at Thalasserry now, but will take another eighty-five days to complete. Mammootty has allotted more than two months to complete this historical which may well become a path breaking attempt in Malluwood. The film which is made with the aids of latest technical advancements is being shot with Pan Vision camera. Ace Tamil actor Sarath Kumar also debuts into Malayalam with this film playing Edachena Kunkan, the best friend of Pazhassi Raja. The film has a very big cast including Kanika, Manoj K Jayan, Biju Menon, Thilakan, Cochin Haneefa and Kalabhavan Mani. After a long gap of 18 years, the classic trio - M.T. Vasudevan Nair, the greatest living writer in Malayalam, Hariharan, the master craftsman and Mammootty, one of the finest actors in the country are together again to make the historical Pazhassi Raja.

Starring: Padmashri Bharath Mammootty, Sarathkumar, Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, Jagathy Sreekumar, Manoj K Jayan, Biju Menon, Siddique, Kalabhavan Mani, Cochin Haneefa, Jagadeesh, Captain Raju, Suresh Krishna, Murali Mohan, Kanika Subramaniam, Padmapriya, Janakiraman, Linda Arsenio, Lakshmi Rai, Urmila Unni.

Putting behind the debacle of his movie Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, the maverick filmmaker is looking forward to start a new film in the coming months. Ram Gopal Varma has a penchant for underworld films. Even though his Sarkar Raj is currently on the floors, Ramu is planning to start another film soon. The movie, titled ‘Dhyeye’ (Mission), will be about nexus between the underworld and international terrorism. Ramu says the underworld has changed a lot since last few years. Now, it no longer deals so much with money extortion or kidnappings. Now, it acts more as a conduit for the international terrorist network. The filmmaker has apparently been doing a lot of research on the subject. Ramu wants to sign only new faces for this movie. He says the film will be shot in Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Certain portions will also be shot in three countries abroad. The filmmaker hopes to start shooting ‘Dhyeye’ as soon as his ‘Sarkar Raj’ is over.
Indrajith, the Kalabhavan Mani starrer film released on Friday has been received well by his fans all over the state. The film is a post Onam release of the actor in 30 centers across the state and the initial 3 days opening for the film is giving much pleasure to its distributors. Originally the film was planned for Onam but due to the non-availability of theaters, it's release was postponed. But unfortunately, all the Onam releases disappointed the viewers and they were in anticipation of a good film. In this situation, Indrajith got released, and found a good weekend opening. The film is directed by Haridas and has all ingredients to satisfy a Malayalam viewer.

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