Anushka lands a role in Vishwaroopam

After several names being tossed, Kamal Haasan has finally chosen the top Tollywood heroine to be his leading lady

The latest buzz in Kollywood is that Kamal Haasan has finally zeroed in on actress Anushka Shetty after having tried - almighty unsuccessfully - to cast a Bollywood heroine for his Viswaroopam. His search seems to have ended much closer to home rather than in Mumbai. Sonakshi Sinha was the original choice to play Kamal's young love interest. Post her walking out of the project, numerous names were tossed about and finally, it seems like Anushka is all set to do Viswaroopam.

Sources say Kamal seems to have been impressed by the top Tollywood heroine after her performance in the recently-released Deiva Thiirumagal and having seen the popularity she enjoys in the south. Incidentally, Anushka is also one of the most sought-after heroines at the moment. According to a source, the shooting of Viswaroopam is all set to start from Monday and Kamal Haasan will be wielding the megaphone himself post the ouster of director Selvaraghavan from the project.

Apparently talks are going on between the actress who reportedly charges a cool 1 crore per film and Kamal. "Since Anushka already has several films (Tamil and Telugu) on hand, they are trying to work out the dates to shoot her portions. Kamal will start shooting his portions from Monday onwards," adds the source.

As the film is touted to be released in both Tamil and Hindi, the Ulaganayagam is keen on roping in Bollywood actors who appeal to audiences in both languages. Recently, Rahul Bose was finalized to play one of the key roles in the film. Music director Shankar Mahadevan has already finished composing a couple of songs for the film.

Apparently, massive sets for the film - the budget of which is touted to be around 60 crore - have already been erected in a popular engineering college owned by Jeppiar on Old Mahabalipuram Road. There was a buzz that the movie would be produced by a top production house from Hyderabad but sources say it's likely to be made under the Raajkamal banner.

Click here for more of Anushka's sizzling hot images..!!

Smart Cookie

Kajal Agarwal is a clever young girl who is very ambitious and goes about her career with the astuteness of a professional chess player.



The petite star's clever strategy helped her land Magadheera, the most successful film in Telugu cinema.



Kajal is now applying the same tactics in Tamil cinema and Bollywood as well. In Tamil, she has Maatran opposite Suriya and in Bollywood, after Singham with Ajay Devgn which was a huge hit, she is sitting pretty.



Kajal somehow managed to bag the role that Anushka Shetty had played in the Tamil original of Singam that had Suriya in the lead.



Her role model is Kajol, Ajay's wife and a superstar in her own right. Kajal did not get to meet Kajol though she really wanted to, but it is certain that the two will get along because both have beauty and brains.

Nagarjuna to give Annapurna Studios to Anushka?

For a while now presshounds have been writing stories by the dozen claiming that Anushka and Naga Chaitanya, son of Nagarjuna are in love and will be getting married soon.

The actress did get incensed with these reports and lashed out at the media berating them for their irresponsible reporting.

Despite her denial, the rumors continue to plague her. Recently, the grapevine has been buzzing with the news that she might be given a partnership in the spanking new Annapurana studios which belongs to Nagarjuna's family. It has been said that the studio has the latest facilities and may even rival the famous Ramoji Rao Filmcity. Ever since this tidbit came out, speculation about Anushka and Naga Chaitanya has become even more frantic.

Neither Shriya nor Anushka

Actress Pranitha made her debut in Tamil with Udhayan opposite Arulnidhi. She is very happy with the response she has been getting and says that everyone has only good things to say about her performance in the film.

Pranitha has been hoping that the film will get her noticed and help her to land some good films and it looks like Pranitha's prayers have been answered.

Pranitha is now Karthi's heroine in Saguni. Karthi's last film Siruthai with Tamannah oppsosite him was a smash hit, and he has been waiting patiently for a good script to follow it up. Debutant Shankar Dayal impressed Karthi with Saguni and he readily agreed to do it.

The talks that Shriya Saran or Anushka to be pairing opposite was finally put to rest with Pranitha being finalized to be Karthi's arm candy.

Anushka paired with Karthi for a new film..

Groom-to-be Karthi is also busy signing up plum projects. His next film after Saguni will be with director Suraaj, who did Padikathavan and Mappillai. Anushka has been roped in as the heroine. She was supposed to have done Siruthai with Karthi since it was a remake of her Telugu film, Vikramarkudu, but it did not work out. The actress is very happy that this time around everything went smoothly.

The film is yet to be titled. It is going to be an entertainer with lots of masala, action, and romance. Suraaj felt that Karthi is perfect for the role and waited patiently for Karthi to wrap up Saguni and give the thumbs up for his film.

Anushka proved to be lucky for Suriya as Singam was a big hit and it is hoped that her pairing with Karthi will also be a lucky one.

Deiva Thirumagal releasing finally..

Vikram's Deiva Thirumagal directed by Vijay was supposed to have been released in April, but it was postponed. The film has been dogged by controversy regarding the title and the portrayal of a certain section of the populace. Changes had to be made and the offended people pacified before the film could proceed to its release.

And now it is confirmed that the film will be released on July 15th. The team is relieved and everybody is waiting to see the audience response to all their hard work. Anushka and Amala Paul will also be seen in this film in addition to comedian Santhanam.

Vikram plays an autistic character. Sean Penn received an academy award nomination for a similar portrayal and closer home, Shah Rukh Khan attempted it. Insiders who have seen the rushes are swearing that this is one of Vikram's finest performances and might just win him another national award.

Ganesh Venkataraman’s love angle with Anushka

After essaying the role of an ATS officer in Unnai Pol Oruvan and an army commando in Kandahar, the debonair Ganesh Venkataraman has shifted his focus to romance. This time around, he has signed a socio fantasy film in Telugu titled Damarukam, where he would be sharing the screen space with Nagarjuna and Anushka.

According to reliable sources, Damarukam will be in the genre of films like Magadheera and Arundhati and will have almost 50 minutes of special effects and is made on a budget of approximately 35 crores. Sources also aver that it is a love triangle between these three characters. The film is currently being shot in Hyderabad.

Ganesh, who is well trained in martial arts, recently did a photo shoot with London-based special effects photographer Marlo with 'Action' as the theme. Discussing about this, Ganesh says, "we worked on an 'Action Star' image for me and the concept of the shoot was to capture images that looked like a frame from an action film. I hope people like the results”.

In Tamil, Ganesh has completed shooting for Pani Thuli, which is a romantic thriller shot across beautiful locales of USA and Chennai. The film is likely to hit the screens by the end of 2011.

Ganesh is also busy in Bollywood where he is working in his debut Hindi film Kuch Log being directed by Mahesh Bhatt. His co stars in this film are Anupam Kher, Gulshan Grover, Rati Agnihotri and Neelima Azeem.

Looking at his projects, we can easily call Ganesh Venkataraman as the pan Indian star.

Anushka finally talks about her Engagement..

Though Anushka decided to keep mum about reports that she got engaged to Naga Chaitanya, son of Nagarajuna, initially, she broke her silence after the situation got worse with the rumors spreading like wildfire.

The actress questioned that how the media can publish such reports without clarifying with her. She maintained that there was no such engagement, as stated by the media. Anushka added that Naga Chaitanya is much younger to her and she is in no way connected to him.

The lady also said that she is in love with someone else but would not reveal about him now.

Anushka's Engagement?

The entire South Indian film industry is shocked over the buzz flashing all over the place that Anushka Shetty is engaged to Nagarjuna’s son Naga Chaitanya.

Reports reveal that the engagement ceremony was a private affair that was attended by family members and close relatives from both sides.

As soon as the news spread like forest fire, fans became irresistible and started peeking more into the issue.

However, closer sources to both ends have denied it as rumors. It is worth mentioning that Anushka shares a close relationship with Nagarjuna and his family as she made her debut in Tollywood through his movie ‘Super’.

Bumper Release..

UTV Motion Pictures have acquired the rights of Vikram's Deiva Thirumagal, directed by Vijay.

The film also has Anushka and Amala Paul in key roles and UTV seem to have a lot of faith in the film that made them decide to release the film simultaneously across the world.

The film will be screened in multiplexes across the length and breadth of the country and is believed that Vikram's performance and charisma will have a lot of pull. Besides North Indian audiences loved him in Raavan.

The film will be censored soon and will be released in July. This is the first Tamil film UTV has bought.

Aasma in Hindi ?

Director Krish made Vedam in Telugu and the film was a huge success. STR saw it and was so impressed that it was remade in Tamil as 'Vaanam' with him in the lead. A few minor changes were made to suit the Tamil audience and the movie made a splash.

Now a leading Bollywood producer has expressed interest in making the movie in Hindi with a fresh cast. Krish will be the director for the third time and is thrilled with the reception to his film and says that its universal theme has helped it to transcend the language barrier.

The director is lapping up the appreciation coming his way and is finalizing the cast with some minor changes in the Hindi script to suit the Hindi audience.

Celebrations with speculations . .

Pleased with the reception that his latest outing Vaanam had got, Silambarasan had organized a success party for the cast and crew of Vaanam. The party took place at a popular hotel in Chennai a couple of days ago. Vaanam’s producer VTV Ganesh, distributor Dhayanidhi Alagiri, Anushka, Krish, Dharani and others were at this success bash.

Vaanam, the remake of Telugu flick Vedham, has turned out to be hit, according to Kollywood circles. This prompted STR to celebrate with his cast and crew.

Vaanam’s director Krish also has a special reason to celebrate as he is likely to go to Bollywood with this remake.

Deiva Thirumagal ?

News about the Thevar community’s unhappiness towards the title of Vikram’s upcoming movie ‘Deiva Thirumagan’ has been in the media for long. Before the team could relent and find a suitable title to replace the original, the Thevar group and Forward block party held protests in front of Vikram’s house in Thiruvanmiyur today morning.

Headed by Muthiah hundreds of people held protests stating that naming a character with developmental disability as ‘Deiva Thirumagan’ undermines and insults their leader Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar. Once the protests started Vikram notified the police who came there and arrested many for causing disturbance. Vikram has sought police protection for his house until the case which is currently going on in Madurai high court comes to a conclusion. During all this commotion the producer Mohan Natarajan announced that the movie title has been changed to ‘Deiva Thirumagal’ ( U gotta be kiddin !).

Deiva Thirumagan and its trouble

After several speculations and options, Vikram and Vijay finally settled upon the title Deiva Thirumagan for their upcoming movie. Barely days after this title was announced people of the Thevar community demanded the title to be changed for it derogates their loved leader Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar who was fondly known as Deiva Thirumagan. The Shiva Sena also joined hands with the Thevar community and demanded the makers to change the title.

Deciding to put an end to all the problems, the director Vijay and Vikram have now changed the name to ‘Deiva Thirumagal’. With this we hope the film does not run into any more problems and gets a smooth release by the end of May. Deiva Thirumagal stars Vikram, Anushka, Amala Paul, Nasser and MS Baskar among several others.

Spunky Vega

Model turned actress Vega first came into the limelight with her breakthrough performance in Saroja and Pasanga. The actress who is not scared to experiment has her next outing as an actress with Vaanam.

The spunky actress will play Lasya, a member of a rock music group originally played by Lekha Washington in the Telugu version.

Vega says her character is a challenging one and she is not worried about getting lost in the multi-starrer with the likes of Silambarasan, Bharath, Anushka, Prakash Raj, and Sonia Agarwal among others.

Though it is a small role, it is well fleshed out and will be remembered, she says. As far as her career is concerned, Vega is happy to take it slow and pick only good roles.

Crowd Puller . .

Young superstar Silambarasan-Bharath starrer ‘Vaanam’ was supposed to hit screens before a month, but was delayed due to unknown reasons. Now as everything gets ready, the producers are having problems in getting theatres.

Due to the grand success of KO, the theatre owners have refused to shift the film to small screens in their theaters. Apparently, This has troubled the producers on their ability of cashing during the 1st weekend and has caused a lot of confusion amongst fans if Vaanam would release as expected.

Yuvan Shankar Raja has already delivered best songs for the film with a list of hit numbers that has already become a chart buster.

Vaanam is a multi-starrer project with the film revolving around five parallel stories with STR, Bharath, Anushka Shetty, Prakash Raj, Sonia Agarwal and Jasmine Bhasin playing lead roles. The remake has Anushka reprising the same role from the original that turned out to be a crowd puller and the same is to be repeated yet again.

While everything go well as planned except for the availability of theaters Simbu has stated that the movie would release as planned making no exceptions.

Vaanam to hit screens .. .

Vaanam has been awarded with a U/A certificate with The Censor Board officials just muting some of the dialogues in the film. The movie is now slated to hit the screens on April 29th, 2011.

Vaanam has created a lot of expectations as this film is a remake of the Telugu hit flick Vedam and is Silambarasan’s first release after his astounding success of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya last year.

Vaanam is directed by Krish, who had also directed the Telugu version with Anushka playing the female lead in this film. Sonia Agarwal, Bharath, Vega, Jasmine and others also share the screen space in this film.

Priyanka for Prince Mahesh : Mani Ratnam

Mani Ratnam intends to make Ponniyin Selvan in three languages – Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Since this film requires a huge star cast, Mani is planning to cast at least one popular face from each film industry, sources report. While for the Tamil version it will be Vijay, for Telugu it is Mahesh Babu.

Having offered the two important male lead roles to the most popular stars in the Tamil and Telugu film industry, sources say that the director feels that Priyanka Chopra would be the apt choice to appease the Bollywood audiences. She will play Mahesh Babu’s on screen pair in this film while Anushka will be Vijay’s.

Anushka Shetty in "Rana"

And finally Anushka is in cloud nine. Anushka has been confirmed to do a role in Rana with super star Rajinikanth. Other leading beauties Vidya Balan and Ileana were also considered but the chance has gone to Anushka and its been confirmed.

Anushka who made it big in Kollywood after Arundhati, is so excited and happy about working with Super Star. As of now, only Deepika Padukone and Anushka have been finalized for this project. Sources do say that there are more female characters that are yet to be decided upon. After all everyone wants to be part of Super star’s film.

Make Hay when the Sun shines

The Tamil remakes of two big budget Telugu films are all set to hit screens by the end of this month. One is the Nagarjuna-Anushka-Priyamani starrer Ragada and the other is Khaleja, starring Mahesh Babu and Anushka.

The Tamil and Malayalam producer of the films, Bhadrakali Prasad Rao, says, "While Ragada has been titled Vambu in Tamil, Khaleja will release as Bathra. The Tamil audio of both the films were launched recently in Chennai. Music of Vambu (by Thaman) and Bhatra (by Mani Sharma) will definitely strike a chord with the Tamil audience."

It is to be noted that both these films dubbed into Tamil as Anushka, the new sensation in Kollywood playing the lead and the producers are only trying to cash in their revenue Making Hay when the Sun shines . .