Known for taking time to complete films, Shankar is on a fast track as far as ‘Nanban’ is concerned. The director has completed the first schedule of this Tamil remake of Bollywood blockbuster ‘3 Idiots’.

“Just finished the first schedule of ‘Nanban’ in Ooty. It was really a good start and I am able to feel things started working. I enjoyed,” the creator of ‘Endhiran’ has written on his blog.

Expressing happiness further, he said: “It was full of fun and laughter, there was a lot of energy flowing as it was a young team… I will keep you posted.” Shankar has also released a set of photographs clicked on the sets of ‘Nanban’.

The photographs had Shankar working with Jeeva and S J Suryah among others. Starring Vijay, Srikanth and Jeeva in lead roles, ‘Nanban’ is produced by Gemini Film Circuit. Ileana plays the heroine, enacted by Kareena Kapoor in the original version.

Shankar, one of the most celebrated directors in South India, will direct the much-discussed remakes of Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots in Telugu and Tamil simultaneously. Gemini Film Circuit will be producing the flick in both languages. Vijay and Mahesh Babu will play the lead role in Tamil and Telugu respectively. The latest buzz is that the film has been titled as Rascals in Tamil and Telugu! Official confirmation is awaited.

இத்தனை காலமும் வேறு மொழிகளில் நடிக்கிறீர்களா என்று யார் கேட்டாலும், 'அய்யோ நான் தமிழனுங்ணா' என கவுண்டர் பாணியில் கூறிவந்த விஜய் [^], இப்போது அந்த தமிழன் முகமூடியை கழட்டி வைத்துவிட்டு தெலுங்கு [^]ப் பக்கமும் எட்டிப் பார்க்க ஆர்வம் காட்டுகிறாராம் (இது சுறா எஃபெக்டா என்பதெல்லாம் நமக்குத் தெரியாதுங்னா!)

ஆம்... முதல் முறையாக ஒரு நேரடி தெலுங்குப் படத்தில் நடிக்கப் போகிறாராம் விஜய்.

அது த்ரீ இடியட்ஸின் தெலுங்கு ரீமேக். ஷங்கர் இயக்கவிருப்பதாகச் சொல்லப்படும் இந்தப் படத்தின் தமிழ்ப் பதிப்பில் விஜய், ஆர்யா மற்றும் ஜீவா நடிக்கின்றனர். தெலுங்கில் விஜய் பாத்திரத்தில் மகேஷ்பாபு நடிப்பார் என்று முதலில் சொல்லப்பட்டது.

ஆனால், தெலுங்கிலும் விஜய்யே நடித்தால் என்ன? என்று அவரது தந்தை எஸ்ஏ சந்திரசேகர் தனது முன்னாள் சிஷ்யரான ஷங்கரிடம் (எஸ்ஏசியிடம் உதவி இயக்குநராக இருந்தவர்தான் ஷங்கர்!) கேட்டுள்ளார். சற்று யோசித்த ஷங்கரிடம், இதற்கு முன் விஜய்யின் டப்பிங் படங்கள் சில தெலுங்கில் நன்றாக ஓடியதாக புள்ளி விவரமெல்லாம் சொன்னாராம் (விஜய் படங்களில் 90 சதவீதம் தெலுங்கு ரீமேக்தான் என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது!).

இப்போது ஒரு வழியாக விஜய்யை தெலுங்கில் அறிமுகப்படுத்தவும் ஒப்புக் கொண்டாராம் ஷங்கர்!

Another going to be much hyped film of the year, the remake of Hindi ‘3 Idiots’, is taking shape as Shankar who is directing this bilingual is ready after completing his ‘Endhiran’. With a lot of imaginations already flowing from all corners it became clearer yesterday when Gemini Film Circuit finally confirmed that Shankar will be in charge of the south Indian remakes.

Immediately after signing the project director Shankar went to Vijay and confirmed him for the Aamir Khan's role. Then Madhavan was confirmed for the same role he played in Hindi version. But there is still news saying Madhavan is not interested to do the role again. Whether he will be able to say no to a Shankar film is a question. For the third main lead Silambarasan aka STR is confirmed. Initially Jeeva was pushed to do this role but Shaknar has opted for STR.

In Telugu, as per news available till now, Mahesh Babu will replace Vijay and Madhavan and STR are being retained for the Telugu also. And for music Shankar may have to leave A R Rahman out as he will be busy on his 'Jai Ho' World Tour all this year. Sources say Shankar has settled for Yuvan Shankar Raja this time.

The recent reaction of theatre owners after the release of Sura is one of the worst happenings in recent past. Time and situation changes everyone, but really not to this extent. The same theatres owners who once hailed Vijay as a Messiah to them, have all of sudden been projecting him as someone who has ruined their lives with unreal claims, that even God cannot approve.

What really hurts is their speeches as if he hasn’t given any profit to them. Vijay is the one who always wishes that everyone from parking boy to theatre owners to distributors and his producers earn profits from his films. And he managed to achieve it number of times which even earned him the Minimum Guarantee hero sttus.

We have a few questions to these protesting theatre owners.

1. If 5 Vijay movies continuously failed as per your claims, on what gut feeling you invested 50 lakhs in his 6th consecutive movie? This seriously lacks any logic. A Good business mind won’t commit same mistake for 6 times in a row. They still look at cashing upon his opening power and fans excitement to see collections for first few days. If they say it’s the trust they had on Vijay it is an escape statement to hide the real source of their losses and shift the blame on Vijay.
  

2. The 50 lakh MG concept would apply only for theatres in major cities like Chennai, Madurai, Kovai, Trichy, Salem and Nellai. Has the movie been sold for same amount to theatres located in places like Karur, Pollachi, Pazhani etc and the other rural areas of TN? We guess the rate is only according to area and projecting it as a Tamilnadu wise problem is again a media stunt.

3.What was the Ticket rates for first 2 weeks? Is any theatre following rules implemented by Govt of Tamil Nadu? People who saw the movie on 20th day paid a Ticket price of min 100. The first 5 days Ticket prices were 150,200 in many places whereas according to Govt norms it should be 50,75 even for an AC theatre. Few theatres outside Chennai has A/C only in its name. With ticket prices min of 100 till 20th day and reasonable crowd flow as confirmed by those who visit theatres, how could an owner face loss?

4. Just a Small calculation. Let’s take a Theatre capacity of around 1000. And a Vijay movie for first 10 days will have minimum 80% Crowd on an average. With theatre ticket prices at a min of 100 and Daily 4 shows, movie sold for 50lakhs. Let keep per Show 800 seats gets filled. Per day 3200 seats (Includes all 4 shows). For 10 days, 10*3200 seats= 32,000*100 ticket cost= 32,00,000.With having 60% average occupancy for next 10 days, with same calculation a theatre would get 24 lakhs back. This itself amounts to 56 lakhs returns roughly with minimum assumed values. Then where comes the claim of money? It looks more like an intentional act to degrade Vijay’s fame in Industry.

4. There is also a point mentioned by theatre owners that Kamal, Rajini, Mani Ratnam and T.R. compensated them. Let us know one thing. Did Kamal compensate for Aalavandhan or Anbe Sivam loss? He did only for Mumbai express which was his own Production. Did Rajni compensate for Kuselan loss? He did only for Baba which was his Own production. Its ages since Mani Ratnam or TR worked in a project for another producer. So its clear that everyone had compensated only for their own Production. If Vijay has been asked compensation for Aathi its fair. Claiming loss for other movies which wasn’t his own Production is heights of stupidity. If they are really failures, why would someone be willing to invest 50 lakhs on Sura after 5 failures?

5. Even after Sun pics themselves said Vettaikaran is their highest grosser, how can these people call that as a flop? If Vijay movies are been called continuous Failures, then what about most of the heroes who give a hit once in a blue moon and still rated as top heroes on par with Vijay? And calling al movies after Aathi as flops, which includes Pokkiri is he most ridiculous thing ever heard recently. And their most unrealistic claim that Sun Pictures cannot be responsible for this highlights their only motive behind all these. How can a distributor selling at a high price be responsible for their loss?!

6. The theatre owners must have forgotten that Vijay is the only hero in current generation who delivered 16 mega hits and several super hits to reach his 50th movie. The same complaining owners have looted lakhs and lakhs when Vijay delivered series of hits by setting high ticket fares, selling tickets in black on their own and providing poor facilities at high ticket rates.

Vijay is indeed the most profitable hero than any others in current generation and this was also said only by their fellow Theatre owners and also Producers and Distributors. All these media stunt looks clearly like a drama to create a negative image in the minds of people by keeping ahead false claims and provoking statements. Before pleading on basis of humanity they should have some gratitude for the person who has laid them Golden eggs when everyone else were delivering duds. When in future a time comes and Vijay delivers hits, let us see what these humanitarians speak about him and at least lets see if they have a heart to thank him for their profits!

TO THE MEDIA:

The fourth estate called Media is a powerful tool in a democratic country. We respect their power to either construct or destruct with the power of their words. But are they doing justice to the articles they write? Definitely not always. Especially almost never when it comes to what they write about Vijay. Those who are their eye candies get hailed every other day and if they are biased about someone, we are sure to see double standards in their articles on them. The hatred or bias which media has been showing of late towards Vijay is really shocking and this article poses a few questions to them on this:

1. Many websites wrote that Vijay will be banned following the recent uproar about Sura from few theatre owners. Anyone with commonsense knows banning an actor directly lies within powers of Nadigar Sangam or Producers council and not Theatre owners who are empowered to issue red cards to an actor’s films and not bans. This itself is a clear example of their attitude towards Vijay and what they really expect to happen. We wonder if they can write with same cruelty about any other hero in similar situation.

2. Every now and then we see articles criticizing Vijay to the lowest levels of even abusing published in websites and few magazines using unparliamentarily language. Aren’t journalists required to have some amount of professional ethics and maintain some levels of discipline when writing about celebrities?

3. Every Vijay movie is degraded with the tagline of “Only for Vijay fans” or by giving the lowest possible star rating with all negatives highlighted. Similar type of films from their eye candy actors or those who are influential will come with a totally different tone from same reviewers, and the star rating would be unbelievably high, not worthy of its value. And the review will definitely have a line which says all negatives are overcome by the performance of so and so actor. They can instead term themselves as fan sites of particular actors which would be more justified on their part.

4. When Sun Pictures, the distributors of Vettaikaaran themselves declared it as their biggest collection grosser, these media still try to project it as a flop. When Vijay movies that have been super hits were termed as just average, average movies are termed as flops and washouts by these media. Why cant they maintain the same scale of box office analysis for their eye candy actors or influential actors?

5. Of late, there has been a new trend to write letters and requisitions for Vijay claiming it as from the point of view of a fan which are nothing but injecting negatives in the form of sugar coated words when his movies are not received well. Why can’t there be articles from the same fans’ point of view when Vijay delivers super hits, and that time, we can see only “average” and “nothing new” kind of reports which has no meaning when most fans like a film.

6. Why can the media offer free advice for actors who claim themselves as family entertainers yet act in bedroom and exposing scenes, actors who does one movie every two years and yet every time come up with similar story of one song millionaire concepts and many others who commit blunders in the name of movies which neither benefits fans nor the people in business? Why do they have to turn their fake attention to Vijay when he has already planned for the change wanted from him?

7. As for Vijay, we have to notice the first and foremost thing that he has avoided any protest that’s against Media in the past as he feels a gratitude that they are ones who strengthen his position to what he is today. Other actors who attend these protests and speak abusive things on the press and media just because they were handed over the mike, as still treated as favorites by media.

8. Vijay is always an easily approachable media friendly hero who has readily agreed for many interviews to even those magazines in the past even when he was hurt by their comments on him and his films. A recent example is his interview to Kumudham in spite of their worst review for Vettaikaaran.

9. If Vijay doing commercial movies is a sin as projected by media, why can’t they offer some guidance to actors who have been acting in similar kind of stories for past 18 odd years or those who miserably fail to deliver bankable movies in a consistent manner and doesn’t even speak openly to media?

10. The festival editions, special editions of magazines will feature an interview of Vijay. They put up series about him to boost up their sales. Yet when it comes to writing about him, it is in the most inhuman way which readily buildup a negative impression in the minds of the readers. And even when their articles are least related to Vijay they use his face on posters to draw attention. Is Vijay a commodity to boost up their sales and then thrown away when they don’t need him?

This article is not intended to ask media to support or come up with articles that always shower praises on Vijay. We want to condemn their worst attitude towards Vijay and being unmindful of the fan power he has. Its high time they stop spreading rumors and publish writings degrading him and his films. They should try to do justice to their profession in whatever they do. Least, they need to posses some humanitarian traits and give respect for everyone’s feelings.

Vijay is at an important cross road now. With controversies and criticisms mounting Ilaya Thalapathi has finally decided to put everything to rest and make every body happy.

As the first step Vijay has decided to release three films this year to make the theatre owners happy. Siddique's ‘Kaavalkaran’ is 60% complete and is generating good trade talk so far. ‘Jayam’ Raja is also ready for ‘Velayudham’ and there will be an official announcement next week.

Also there is news about Vijay giving his consent to do the remake of ‘3-Idiots’ in Tamil. It’s likely that Vijay will announce this at the launch function of ‘Velayudham’.

With these sudden developments the theatre owners are convinced and are ready for Vijay films again.

Tamil Nadu theatre owners and distributors convened an emergency meeting on May 22 in Chennai and unanimously decided to demand that Ilayathalapathi Vijay refund a portion of the money they put up for his 50th film Sura, which bombed at the box office. They wanted the actor to refund at least 40% of the amount that they had paid as MG (Minimum Guarantee).

Now the actor has replied by working on two films simultaneously: Kaavalkaran and Velayutham. Vijay is also planning to start a third film (remake of 3 Idiots) by August. Reportedly Vijay will have two heroines—Genelia and Hansika—in Velayutham and will play a fictitious man of the masses created by a female journalist. The film is rumoured to be a remake of Nagarjuna’s Telugu hit Azad (2000), which was inspired from Amitabh Bachchan’s 1989 flop Main Azad Hoon, which was again inspired from Frank Capra’s 1941 classic Meet John Doe!