Forbes India has released the top 100 Indian celebrities for this year and the list has more of Bollywood personalities as usual. The list is based on the annual earnings of the celebrities and their popularity quotient. Shah Rukh Khan tops the list with 257.5 crores as earnings in 2015 followed by Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and MS Dhoni in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively. As regards our Kollywood celebrities who have managed to enter this list, there is a major surprise element here. We don’t see Ajith or Vijay in the Top 100 list but we have AR Rahman (14), Dhanush (37), Kamal Haasan (46), Santhanam (52), Rajinikanth (69), Suriya (71) and Arya (80). The other South celebrities who have managed to enter the list are Mahesh Babu (36), Allu Arjun (42), Kajal Aggarwal (58), Shruti Haasan (61), S S Rajamouli (72), Ravi Teja (74), Prabhas (77), Prabhu Deva (88) and Puri Jagannadh (89). The numbers in the bracket indicate the celebrity's place in the Top 100
Sivakarthikeyan is currently busy doing a film for debut producer RD Raja's 24 AM Studios, directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan. Keerthi Suresh is the female lead in this Anirudh musical. Now the announcement from RD Raja on his 2nd film is out and it is learnt that Mohan Raja would be directing this film with Sivakarthikeyan again playing the lead role. The banner plans to continue doing such formidable noteworthy projects. The shoot is planned from May 2016 and the 24 AM team intends to wrap shoots and release the flick by 2016 itself. Quite a surprise combo indeed, and an exciting one too! More updates on the genre and other cast and crew would be known in the coming days.
Arya, the handsome hunk and the fitness freak of K town celebrates his birthday today, the 11th December. Known for his cool candor and casual sense of humor, the suave actor made his Kollywood debut through Jeeva’s Ullam Ketkume and has come a long way since then. His 25th film was Vasuvum Saravananum Onna Padichavanga with his buddy Santhanam. He was recently seen in Inji Iduppazhagi with Anushka and is working in the Bangalore Days Tamil remake now. An avid sports enthusiast, Arya’s team - ‘Ryders, Team Jammy’ successfully completed a grueling 300-kilometre cycling event in Sweden — Vatternrundan few months back. Here is wishing the actor a very happy birthday and many more to come!
Tamil cinema’s youngest rockstar, Anirudh, is currently making his Canadian fans very happy! The youngest music composer in the industry arrived in Toronto earlier this week and participated in an official “Meet & Greet Anirudh” event on the night of December 10, where he personally met and posed for pictures with his most ardent local fans. The meet & greet event was part of Anirudh’s first ever Canadian concert which will be taking place in the Toronto area this Saturday, December 12. Before posing for a string of priceless selfies with his doting fans, he spoke to the media and crowds about what a whirlwind year 2015 has been and that Canadian audiences can expect a unique, rocking show on Saturday that has never been seen before in the realms of Tamil music. “We’re trying to do something new. It’s going to be a different type of Thamizh concert…almost like a Thamizh EDM show (electronic dance music)” , he explained cooly. Exhibiting his camaraderie and encouraging nature he also praised and spoke highly of the many Canadian artists and his "fellow YouTubers" who will be performing with him on Saturday, as well as enjoyed some of their unplugged performances of his songs shortly before the picture sessions began. He even happily answered some personal questions from the crowd, even those related to his relationship status (“it’s complicated”)! Arya Canada, the producers of this weekend’s events were extremely grateful to the ultimate VIP for honouring his commitments and sticking to his travel plans amidst the Chennai floods. In fact, the event’s MCs explained how, due to the rains, Anirudh had to travel from Chennai to Bangalore to Delhi to England to Canada just to reach in time for his commitments! In a grand gesture on the parts of both Anirudh and the concert organizers it was officially announced that proceeds from both parties from this weekend’s concert would be donated to assist with relief efforts in Chennai. Kudos to Anirudh for his professionalism to maintain his commitments despite the troubling floods in Chennai and for his consistently friendly demeanour with his fans! The first ever “Anirudh Live in Toronto” concert takes place this Saturday December 12 at the Powerade Centre.
Rajini Murugan has seen quite a few release dates till now and unfortunately the film has been pushed each time. The latest on the release front is that the film is planning a Pongal 2016 release on Jan 14, Thursday. This would mark Sivakarthikeyan's first Pongal release in his burgeoning career. The other Pongal releases are likely to be Bala's Thaara Thappattai and Sundar C's Aranmanai 2 while Pandiraj's Kathakali is also in the race for a possible festival opening. The Pongal race is heating up indeed.
On a general note, Chennai floods have affected people of all stratas but on a closer look, one understands the plight of the women who lost everything in the flood. With no spare garments to change, the condition of female victims is heartbreaking. As a solution to this specific problem, Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi has come up with a custom made initiative called ‘Sahodarikku Sasneham’ which means “To sister, with love” when translated literally. Ace actress Nayanthara joins hands with Mathrubhumi for this vital initiative and will be donating 1000 relief kits, consisting of clothes and other essentials, to female victims. Apart from this, the Lady Superstar has also apparently donated close to 20 lakhs towards immediate relief funds raised for Chennai floods and sent a truck load of supplies along with her Malayalam co-stars. Such gestures from the big names of the glamour industry are very reassuring and heartwarming.
Superstar Rajinikanth’s Enthiran 2 is all set to kick start shooting from the 16th of December 2015, in Chennai. This humongous project directed by Shankar is expected to be one of India’s costliest films ever made. A swanky grand set has been apparently erected in the outskirts of Chennai at EVP and we hear that a vast portion of the film will be shot inside this set. Like any other Shankar film, one can expect the set work to be ritzy. Shankar is also known for choosing exotic locations for his films. Who can forget the peculiar locations of Peru and Brazil in Enthiran? Supposedly for Enthiran 2, the team will be leaving for Bolivia soon to shoot a song. Bolivia is located in South America and is one of the least explored locations by the Tamil film industry. Apparently the camera department which is headed by Nirav Shah, has already started lighting work one week back.
Selvaraghavan's next film 'Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam' has been certified with a A certificate without any cuts. This film has been written by the most admired director of the younger generation and directed by his wife and former associate Geethanjali Selvaraghavan. Sources close to the makers reveal that the film deals with an adult subject which warrants a certificate and they were not ready for any cuts in an attempt to make it suitable for non-adults. MNM has been produced by Kola Bhaskar who has worked as an Editor in many films directed by Selva. Bhasker's son Balakrishna Kola and Punjab based actress Wamiqa Gabbi make their Kollywood debuts, playing lead roles in this film. Music has been scored by Amrit while Sridhar has handled the lens and Vasanth-Rukesh have done the Editing. The team plans to release the film within the end of December 2015 if all things work out as planned.
Actor Siddharth's next film 'Jil Jung Juk' which has been produced by him under his Etaki Entertainments banner was earlier scheduled to hit the screens on December 25, 2015. But now the actor-producer has announced that the film has been postponed to next year. The film directed by debutante Dheeraj Vaidhie can be expected to release in early 2016. RJ Balaji plays an important supporting role in the film. We all know how Siddharth and Balaji have been involving themselves in immediate relief work for the deluge affected victims of Chennai last week and now he has started concentrating on rehabilitation of these people. Siddharth himself has suffered huge losses due to the natural calamity that stuck the city last week as his house was submerged and cars and office space have been severely damaged. But Siddharth prioritized volunteering for the people's cause rather than taking stock of losses suffered by him. Many people, mainly the youngsters have started calling duo as 'Real heroes'. We can be assured that his film whenever it releases will strike the right chord with the audiences.
