The super hit Malayalam film Chocolate remake rights were sold by its producers to Mirchi Movies for a whopping Rs One crore! The remake rights include all language and is the highest ever paid for a remake of a Malayalam film. Mirchi Movies Limited, the filmed entertainment arm of the media conglomerate Times Group is buying the rights to remake the film in all Indian languages. They brought the Chocolate remake rights because it had a unique theme, a lone guy studying in a women's college and his funny travails. It is a universally appealing theme that may work big time in other languages. Meanwhile director Shafi is planning to make a sequel to Chocolate, with Pritiviraj and a new girl. The buzz is that this time he will have a lone girl studying in a men's college!

Balachandra Menon, noted writer, director and actor is back with his new film De Ingottu Nokiye (Hey, look this side). The shoot of the film has started in Kattakada, near Thiruvananthapuram. Menon was a rage during the 80's and 90's with Kerala's family audiences who loved his sweet and stirring family movies. His forte is light humour, good melodies, the feel good factor and catchy titles. De Ingottu Nokiye is another catchy typical Menon style title. The film has Menon, Jayasurya, Thilakan and a new heroine Sara, a Chennai model. Remember Menon is famous for introducing some of the best known actresses in Malayalam cinema- Shobhana, Karthika, Parvathy, Annie and Nandini.

Good News for all you 'Chiyaan' Vikram fans, his Bheema overseas prints have left Chennai's Adlabs where it is being printed on Saturday (Jan 12) evening! In overseas, places like Malaysia and Gulf it will have to undergo local censoring on Monday. The film is the only one among Pongal releases which will have a simultaneous release with India. The advance booking for Bheema opened in Chennai on Sunday, Jan 13 morning, and it has been fantastic. Sathyam Cinemas is having nine shows daily till January 20, five shows daily at the big screen plus daily morning shows in four smaller screens. 'Abirami' Ramanathan says: "Bheema is sold out for the first four days all four shows in Abirami's two screens with a capacity of 1520 seats. I would say it is a fantastic opening and this Pongal there is no competition to the Vikram entertainer". At Mayajaal multiplex on ECR in Chengalpet area, Bheema is being given the pride of place, with an unbelievable 30 shows a day spread across its 9 screens including three new screens that are slated to open for Pongal. The first public screening of Bheema is likely to start at Mayajaal on Thai Masam-1, at 9.30 in the morning, a very auspicious day which is also the Pongal day. In suburban areas in Chengalpet bordering Chennai city, theatres are likely to start the film from 6.30 am. But all of them are worried that the film is a little too long at 3 hrs 6 minutes, which means they will not be able to have more number of shows!

The ban on simultaneous release of Tamil films in Kerala has been lifted by Film distributors association (Kerala), thanks to the efforts of Tamil Film Producers Council. Now all new Tamil films can have simultaneous release in Kerala from January 1, 2008 with any number of prints! The powerful theatre lobby in Kerala has also been fighting a fierce battle to screen Tamil films simultaneously. The battle between theatres lobby and FDA (Kerala) came out into the open after Billa's delayed two weeks release in Kerala.Inspite of putting all hurdles, Billa took better opening than any other Malayalam Christmas releases! In 10 days the film has netted an amazing Rs 11.37 lakhs from Padma in Ernakulam, much more than any other Christmas releases!Now Vikram's Bheema will release this Pongal simultaneously with Tamilnadu. And for the first time theatres in Kerala are willing to pay MG for Tamil big budget films!

The shoot of the Dhanush- Nayanthara film Yaaradi Nee Mogini was wrapped up with the last song picturised on a beach in Pondicherry. Well the pair looks cute and the buzz is that the on-screen chemistry between them is terrific. In fact, in a recent interview Dhanush himself admitted that he shares a great rapport with Nayanthara and she has given a wonderful performance in the film. This song for the film was shot in an island near Pondicherry and the unit had to drive 20 minutes and then take a boat to reach this exclusive island beach. The song was choreographed by Dinesh to the music of Yuvan Shankar Raja. The film is directed by Jawahar, a long time assistant to Selvaraghavan and produced by Dhanush’s home production RK films. The crowd in Pondy beach went crazy seeing Nayanthara, who had to wait patiently and sign auto graphs, some of the people including women wanted to just touch her! After Billa, Nayan has to get extra security to travel in Tamilnadu where she has become a rage. Later in the evening the unit held a “Farewell dinner” at a star hotel in Pondy as it was the last day of the shooting.

The one quality in Shah Rukh Khan that seems more appreciable than all others is the generosity with which he supports his friends and protégés. The most recent beneficiary of his largesse is the My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves wanna-shine Nikhil Dwivedi. Not only has Shah Rukh been supporting Dwivedi’s starry dreams he has also been making sure the boy is seen in public places with the superstar. After making his presence felt at the music release of Nikhil's film, Shah Rukh showed up at the film's premiere on Wednesday night with his leg obviously in pain. The star had injured his leg while rehearsing his steps for the Screen awards. "It was really very nice of him," says Nikhil. "The injury was an old one. But he hurt himself in the same leg while rehearsing for his performance at the awards." Shah Rukh couldn't stay for the whole film. Nevertheless, promised to catch up with My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves in a couple of days.