Dr. Vijay And Dr. Shankar

A university in Chennai has decided to confer the doctorate title on Vijay and Shankar. Receiving honors for their service to society is a great achievement indeed. Among the long list of deserving individuals, who had done great service to the society, now joins two more from Kollywood. After Sathyaraj and Deva, it is now the turn of director Shankar and actor Vijay to recieve doctorates.

The Dr. M.G.R Educational and Research Institute in Maduravoyil has been conferring doctorates on persons of merit every year. This year, 3 people have been selected. Two are from the film field. One is actor Vijay and the other is director Shankar. And third one is the Indian Medical Council’s chairman Anil Gohali.

The deemed university run by former AIADMK MP and the founder of the New Justice Party A C Shanmugam will be holding its 16th convocation on the 27th of this month.

The University announced that the doctorate is being given to Vijay for his hard work and achieving so much at this young age, and for his immense contribution to the cause of the underprivileged through social welfare activities with support from his fans.

Shankar gets the doctorate for making films comparable to Hollywood.

The convocation is to be held on the 27th at the university campus in Maduravoyil and the head of India’s space research organization ISRO, Madhavan Nair will chair the convocation and hand over the awards.

54th Filmfare Awards Pictures, Gallery

The prestigious annual Filmfare Awards function was held on a grand scale this year as well. The function is being held to felicitate the 'Best' of the artistes and technicians in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam language films and to present them these Awards by the leading film magazine of southern India 'Filmfare'. That means, the south Indian film stars and technicians would be presented these awards. The Filmfare Awards function was held at International Convention Centre in Hyderabad this year at 6.30 pm on August 5.

Those who attended the function include the top stars of the Telugu film industry Padma Bhushan, Mega Star, Dr Chiranjeevi, Yuva Samrat Nagarjuna, Amala, Victory Venkatesh, Bollywood Baadshah and All India Super Star Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Aiswarya Rai, Raviteja, Malayalam super star Mammootty, Kannada young hero Puneet Rajkumar, Ramcharan Teja, Vijay, versatile directors, Shankar, Puri Jagannath, K Raghavendra Rao, Gautham Menon, Muralimohan, AM Ratnam, Dr D Ramanaidu, Allu Aravind, YVS Choudary, Jesudas, Music Magician AR Rahman, besides Krishnamraju, K Viswanath, Arjun Rampal, Devisri Prasad, Lawrence, Vineet, Jayasudha, Ramyakrishna, Amala, Namrata, Tabu, Ooha, Nayanatara, Roma, Chitra, Bhavana, Sandhya, Trisha, S Gopal Reddy, Veturi Sundararama Murthy, and several other top film personalities from Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam participated in the programme.

Padma Bhushan, Mega Star, Dr Chiranjeevi, and Malayalam Super Star Mammotty received Legendary awards, while Rebel Star Krishnamraju and popular playback singer P Suseela received the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the year 2006 as part of the 54th Annual Filmfare Awards function.

Bommarillu bagged the Best Film category, while Puri Jagannath bagged the Best Directors category, Maheshbabu won the Best Hero, Genelia won the Best Heroine, Devisri Prasad as Best Music Director, SP Balasubrahmanyam as Best Male Singer, Mamata Mohandas as Best Female Singer, while Ram and Ileana bagged the best Debut hero and heroine awards. In technical sectioni, S Gopal Reddy bagged the Best Cinematography award, Lawrence as the best choreographer, Veturi Sundarama Murthy as the best lyricist, Saikumar in the Best Supporting Actor category, while Sandhya received the Best Supporting Actress category, besides others.

Legend Award winner in Telugu Chiranjeevi says, 'While receiving such prestigious awards, we remain dumbstruck. At this moment, I feel that I am still a student and talking in front of a Headmaster. That Headmaster is none other than Big B Amitabh Bachchan. He is an inspiring personality for many artistes. I thank all the producers, directors, technicians and co-stars on this occasion. Especially, it was my fans who refill energy every time. This legendary award is the result of all the power that was given to me by all these people.'

SP Balasubrahmanyam says, 'After the Filmfare started announcing awards to Best Playback Singers, I am the first-ever person who bagged this award. Moreover, I am very happy to receive this award especially in presence of my brother-like Viswanath and Jesudas.'

P Suseela, who bagged the Lifetime Achievement Award says, 'It was Prakasa Rao who gave me the first-ever opportunity to sing a song in 1951. My career continued all these days because of the blessings of all the elders and the producers and directors. I feel proud to bag 'Lifetime Achievement Award.' I will continue to safeguard my honour by rendering songs even with this present generation singers.'

Another Lifetime Achievement Award' winner Krishnamraju says, 'This is my fifth Filmfare Award. My journey in the film industry was started with 'Chilaka Gorinka.' Though I announced earlier that I don't receive any private awards, I am receiving this award in honour to the prestigious Filmfare Awards. In my first film, I had a chance to play with SV Ranga Rao. After 40 years, I bagged an award instituted on his name this year. I am very happy for achieving to great honours in the same year.'

Dil Raju, who bagged three awards for his film 'Bommarillu' in the categories of Best Film, Best Director and Best Heroine, says, 'We can produce many successful films. But great films would not come very often. This award should go to Bhaskar and his team, who had brought out a film like 'Bommarillu'.

Shankar’s Arai En 305-il Kadavul

Director Shankar is in cloud nine after the mega success of Sivaji and the fact that the ball is set rolling for his dream project Robo. Though he directs big-budget movies, his home production, S Pictures, always makes films that do not boast of any lavishness. Even his Imsai Arasan 23-aam Pulikesi, an historical, was made on a shoestring budget.

S Pictures next venture, Arai En 305-il Kadavul is directed by Simbudevan, the same director who made Imsai Arasan. This movie has a scene where the top angle of a building must be shot. The director came up with an idea of using a helicopter to get the complete effect. But Simbudevan was very skeptical in putting forth this request to his producer. However, when Shankar was briefed about this he immediately approved the idea. The scene is now being shot at a building in Bangalore as it is easier to obtain permission from the authorities there than in Chennai

Shankar's Robot

Sivaji is still reigning all over the world with enviable and hitherto unheard figures and has raised the bar for future films. It has set a pioneering standard not only for Tamil films but has also made Rajnikanth and Shankar a household name across the length and breadth of the nation. The film is making inroads in North India shoving aside the much hyped Jhoom Barabar Jhoom which sank without a trace.

There have been rumors about Shankar’s next project which ranged from a film with Ajith to a venture with Hrithik Roshan also. However Shankar has not confirmed any of these news bits till date. But finally an announcement has come from Shankar’s fort.

He is all set for his dream venture, supposedly his tour de force, entitled Robot, a gripping science fiction thriller with none other than the King Khan of Hindi films in the lead role. Shah Rukh who had watched Sivaji was reportedly very impressed with the film and has agreed to not only feature in Shankar’s next project but has also agreed to produce it under his Red Chilies Entertainment. The movie will be the second Hindi film for Shankar whose earlier Nayak, a remake of Tamil blockbuster Mudalvan had made people sit up and take notice of him.

Robot with all its latest techno wizardry will be released in Tamil Telugu and other languages. The crew details are yet to be finalized. This is an official statement from the Shankar camp itself. So viewers, gear up for Robot.

Shankar and Rajni’s next projects

After the astounding performance of Sivaji, film industry and fans are eagerly awaiting Shankar and super star’s next venture. As regards Shankar, it was said that he and Ajith will be doing a film together especially after the former watched Kreedom. There was also a talk which indicated that Shankar will be directing the Telugu super star Chiranjeevi which was slated to occur even before Sivaji happened but the duo had postponed this due to prior commitments.

Meanwhile Shankar’s project Robot which he wrote keeping Kamal in mind was said to be revamped with Bollywood matinee idol Hrithik Roshan. Shankar is a known name in Bollywood circles as he had directed the Hindi remake of Mudalvan with Anil Kapoor in the lead. Now with Sivaji’s triumph, there appears to be a shower of offers from Bollywood and King Khan is said to have shown interest in acting under Shankar’s direction. This is likely to happen after Shah Rukh completes his present venture Om Shanthi Om, remember that Shankar wanted the king khan to act in his Nayak, but due to some prior commitments he declined the offer and Anil kapoor got the role.

On the other hand there are varied speculations that are doing its round regarding Super star’s next project. Based on his talk during the audio launch of Poi directed by his guru and mentor K Balachander, it was thought that his next film may be for Kavithalaya films. Sathyajyothi films and Vijaya Combines are also said to have approached Rajnikanth. Meanwhile before leaving for his overseas trip, Rajni had invited yesteryear director Panju Arunachalam for a meeting. This has triggered the hypothesis that super star may help a few producers who had given him breaks during his earlier times which may be something similar to Arunachalam where 6-7 producers were involved in the film. However the actual picture will emerge only after he returns from U.S. But as far as Shankar or Rajnikanth is concerned until an announcement comes directly from them, everything hangs in air.