Much before Vinnaithandi Varuvaaya had hit the screens, Silambarasan publicized about his directorial Valiban. The film was to be produced by SS Chakravarthy of Nic Arts and Simbhu was reported to be performing dual roles.

Set in backdrops of India, New York and Sri Lanka, the film was supposed to be made at a big cost. On the spur of moment, Simbhu has dropped this project and has joined hands with director Lingusamy for a commercial film.

According to the sources, Lingusamy has flown down to a foreign land penning script for this film and will soon make official confirmations. Lingusamy’s brother Subash Chandra Bose is producing this film under the banner of Tirupathi Brothers.

Prabhu is a business man settled in London and Sindhu had not met him before her engagement. His family had come down To India on business tour. The offer came from one of her mother’s cousins. Her family met his family and the kundlis (horoscope) of both were matching. Both the families agreed to go ahead with the alliance. “So it (engagement) happened all of a sudden,” the Bangalore Times reports Sindhu as saying.

Both the families wanted their engagement ceremony to be a low-key affair. Even though it was a just family affair, there was lot music and mehendi. Many of her friends were present on the occasion. Her brother Karthik Menon was the happiest man on the earth on that day. He was running around to ensure that his sister had a good time.

As Sindhu fans are keeping their fingers crossed about her marriage, the newly-engaged couple has planned to settle down in London. Prabhu has already returned to London and is hoping that she will complete all her projects before their marriage. Meanwhile, Sindhu is in Chennai to shoot for her Tamil film.

Raavan is a multi-lingual film that has Vikram and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan playing the lead roles in the Tamil version, while Ash pairs up with Abhishek Bachchan for the Hindi version.

The latest news is that he has invited his old friends Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan for the big launch. But whether they would attend the function still remains a mystery, as they would not like to rub the ruling party the wrong way. Captain is starting a General Entertainment Channel (GEC) knows the importance of Kollywood stars and their reach. His channel has already purchased a few Tamil films, though the first film he will telecast is going to be Captain Prabhakar.

At the same time, Rajnikanth and Kamal Hassan has confirmed their participation at the foundation stone laying ceremony for Kalaignar Thirai Oor, a residential colony for members of the film fraternity, at Paiyanoor near Chennai on April 23. The chief guest at the function would be Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Moreover, Parthiban’s Manitha Neya Mantram is said to have influenced Suriya largely in forming his own Agaram Foundation. Now the off screen friendship between Suriya and Parthiban is all set to take roots on big screen. The latest news is that Suriya is impressed with a story of Parthiban and is likely to do the film under Parthiban direction. It also says Parthiban and Suriya were to do a film after ‘Mounam Pesiyathey’ but that did not happen for some reasons. But the critics say director Vasanth has been trying for very long to get the dates of Suriya but not getting it. If Suriya hasn’t preferred Vasanth yet will he with Parthiban.

Well, she may be a good motivator and all, but once her boys are on the field, apart from cheering and waving the team’s flag, there’s nothing much Preity can do. Thankfully, though she can do something about the heat. Preity has often been seen desperately fanning herself with a hand fan, especially when the going’s tough. Interestingly, the fan’s colour matches that of the team’s uniform. Team T-shirt, red fan, what else for team support, girl.

In fact, PC is said to have flown in from her outdoor shooting and signed Anurag Basu’s new film with Ranbir, forcing Katrina Kaif to exit. Kat knows PC is a powerhouse performer and will give her stiff competition. Also, rumours suggest that with PC and Ranbir no longer being strangers, Kat will be uncomfortable around them.

During the interval, Neetu was seen posing for pictures while Jagmohan waited patiently for her. “At around 1.30 am, they left together before the film ended,” says the source. It’s possible that sparks flew while they were working on Apartment. And now, it’s upto Neetu to accept or deny the story. We guess she’d be choosing to do the latter!

But no one complained; in fact, everyone kept hoping that they’d get a glimpse of the star. The house where he was shooting is just off the main road and hence SRK’s vanity van was parked at a distance. That is where all the fans would gather hoping to get a dekko of the actor. But his security entourage made sure no one got within arm’s distance of the actor. And they maintained this stance on the sets too. According to a source, the grand children of the elderly house owners came over in the hope of seeing the superstar in action, meeting him and getting his autograph. But the guards wouldn’t allow them anywhere close to him. No amount of pleading by the grandmother helped and the tots had to go back empty handed and maha disappointed.

Soon after reports that Katrina had agreed to be part of a film which stars Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, comes news that she has opted out of the Anurag Basu film. Explaining the rationale of her decision, a close friend of the actress says, “When Katrina agreed to do Anurag Basu’s film with Ranbir, no mention was made of another heroine, and certainly not of Priyanka. However, when word about this reached her, she found the whole idea of the credit titles reading ‘Ranbir-Katrina-Priyanka’ too gimmicky. Not that she has anything against Priyanka or any other co-star.”

But the more immediate reason for Katrina could be that she has finally acquired the rights to produce the remake of a French film –she’s been after it for almost a year now and wants to immediately allot time for this pet project.
Having signed Dostana 2 and Zoya Akhtar’s next, besides Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan (for which she’s shooting at the moment), the only way she could accommodate this remake was to refuse any other projects this year.
Katrina doesn’t deny she has decided to do only solo-heroine films. “I am not saying I won’t do films with other leading ladies, but for now, I’m happy in the space I am. Why should I unnecessarily rock the boat? And yes, I am finally about to lock the deal to produce my film. It’s a fabulous role and I’ve been angling for the remake rights for quite some time. I’d like to get down to it as soon as possible.”

The remake of the French film will feature Katrina as a scheming gold-digger. She has apparently been pining to play a grey role for some time now.