A wall poster from themovie Jab We Met

Playing a versatile roles in the many areas as producer to till distributor and director, producer Ramesh Yadav is all set to take up remaking bollywood flick Jab We Met in Kannada with a different title altogether.

Producer turned director and distributor Ramesh Yadav own the remaking rights in Kannada with the whopping amount of Rs 35 lakh. The popular Hindi flick made waves at the box office with its all songs made into top in the charts and remained in top slot for more than a month. “Personally Jab We Met is my pick of the year. The movie has been completely shot with a different love formula. Among many experiments done in scripting over love, Jab WE Met stands out from the rest of the movies based on love. When the movie was released I watched it along with my family and was absolutely inspired to make it in Kannada. When I bought the rights in Mumbai, I just had it in my mind that even if you remake it in Kannada definitely there would be a good response to it,” says Ramesh Yadav. Right now, the director is busy with the film titledBoss starring Darshan, Navya Nair and Rekha. Ramesh Yadav also has plans to being remaking jab We Met in Kannada from January onwards.

A wall poster from the movie Josh

What does one do to up the ‘josh’ quotient for a team that has finished a shoot on mean machines? Producer S.V. Babu decided to answer that for the film ‘Josh’ by gifting them a fancy set of wheel each as remuneration! The post-production of the movie Josh directed by Shivamani and the movie is set for release in this month.

There were examples in the past when producers used to gift various articles to the star cast in their films. But they were considered merely gifts not remuneration. “The reason why I distributed those Pulsar bikes was that they actually ride these bikes in the movie. So, I knew they would really love to have those bikes with them permanently. All the six lead characters were selected for the film after conducting state wide auditions in various district headquarters. It was a lengthy process as more than 8,000 students were interviewed before selecting these six bys. When I saw the first print in a private theatre I was really happy to their level of involvement in the film. So I went ahead and distributed the latest Bajaj Pulsar bikes as part of their remuneration,” says producer S V Babu.

Shivamani who has directed the film Josh is quite happy to see a smile on the faces of the six boys who have done a commendable job in the film. “Many have asked me whether the film was inspired by the Tamil film Boys which was a hit. There’s not a single element in the film which can be compared with Boys. When producer S V Babu told me that he wants to distribute Bajaj Pulsar bikes to the six boys, I was really surprised. But I’m happy that decision,” says Shivamani.

Josh stars debutants Akshay, Alok, Amith, Jagannath, Rakesh and Vishnu. Jagannath who plays a lead role in the film along with other five boys shared his sentiments on the gift. “More than getting a bike I’m looking forward for the movie’s release. For more than 60 days, the entire team of Josh dedicated itself to ensure quality output. So, I’m quite excited about the movie,” says Jagannath.

Actress Deepika Padukone

If things happen as expected, businessman-turned producer Ashok Khenny may well bring Bollywood actress Deepika padukone back to Kannada films. Deepika made her acting career debut wit the film Aishwarya opposite Upedra. The film was directd by Indrajith Lankesh. Ashok Khenny who has produced one film so far has three more ambitious projects on the anvil. Ashok says, “Deepika definitely going to be part of my ambitious project. We have been in touch with the actress. She has been involved in Bollywood with many project on ahnd. We have even made an offer to her and are waiting for her to confirm whether she cold be a part of it. She has responded positively. Im’m not sayig that she’s going to start work very soon. There is still a lot to be done from our side too. Scripting, star cast and production team are et to be finalized. Things are still in the primary stages. As soon we can wrap that we will make a public announcement,” says Khenny.

According to industry sourcs Deepika Padukone has been doing extremely well in Bollywood and commands a remuneration of over Rs 1.5 crore. “She has grown beyond cost barriers in the industry. In a span of time she has reached to such height with sheer dedication and passion for her work. I remember when she made her debut in the film Aishwarya, the media reported that she was paid Rs five lakh for her debut. A comparison of her remuneration from present shows how she has become,” says a source.

NICE (Nandi Infrastructre and Corridor Enterprise) chairman Ashok Khenny has some ambitious projects for Bollywood, including remaking Aishwarya into Hindi. “you will definitely get to see leading southern superstars in all of my mega ventures. As part of the project, actress Illeana will also be playing in the third project, which will be an action-suspense flick,” saysKhenny.

Actor Naveen Gowda

With young and debutant directors on the small screen opting for family dramas, baddies are having it all this season. Actor Naveen weaves a magic with his performances and has becoming the hottest baddie on the Kannada small screen. The actor takes the the top slot for his portrayal in the serial Bande Baruthava Kaala directed by Kalagangotri Manju. Naveen has been a busy small screen actor throughout the year and did a guest appearance in movies like Minchina Ota and upcoming release Yogi.

Small screen audiences seems to have become obsessed with his character in Bande Baruthava Kaala. Responses have been pouring in from all across the state. “The response has been great from the industry and audiences too. I played similar roles in serials last year and my audiences inspired me to improve my performance this year. I have signed Maneyondu Mooru Baagilu, Mumbelaku and one more serial for Sun Network which will begin from December onwards.”

But has he changed continuously? Has he been affected by all that role play? “That’s the tragic part in every artist’s life.  No matter how long you work on the sets or how much you are paid for your performance in a serial, such questions will find no meaning in an artist’s life. I am an artist and when I’m on the sets my objective is to give my best for my role. I do know what I’m playing a character and that it’s just a job. I’m back to my normal self. I’m quite comfortable playing baddy roles,” says Naveen.

Ever wondered why all the Kannada television channels are playing music reality shows all the time? And only movies with good music scoring are crossing hundred days in the box office? May be we all should agree with the reason that indeed it is nothing but the beginning of Musical Era. Budding singers are having their best of the time behind the screen. Going by the opinion of the Kannada film industry these local singers are not as happy when it comes to remuneration packages.

The time seems to have changed over the years. It must be said in the last two years there isn’t a much increase in the remuneration packages given to the both lead male and female singers. Hamsalekha, who has been in the industry for more than 25 years is under an impression that the film industry has gone completely commercial and doesn’t care much of the plight of both music directors as well as singers. “Whether the remuneration packages of singers has increased or not that’s the not the issue here. The industry is worried more of making better use of the singers and music directors with low payments. There never was a situation like this before. This growing negative trend is breeding a lot of unprofessional singers to the industry. They are not well trained and in many a times they can’t even speak proper Kannada. In these times, singers from bollywood are taking high remuneration packages where as the local ones are given very low amount,’ says Hamsalekha.

Well-known singer Sonu Nigam gets the highest payment of Rs 2.5 lakh per song. And stands at the top in the list. Whereas singer from Karnataka Rajesh Krishnan is being paid Rs 15,000 per song. Music director V Manohar says, “Gone are the days when singers are judged by their performance in front of the mic. But now things have changed. Singers are sold by their popularity and industry concerns. Sonu Nigam has a good selling proposition in the market. So, any audio company would come forward to pay him hefty package. I don’t think Kannada singers would ever afford this in near future. So, the difference between the highest paid and the lowest paid is just because of industrial concerns and not by their performance.”

After the success of the film Mungaru male, lead music directors seems to be in a hurry that singer Sonu Nigam has to sing at least one song in a movie. V Harikrishna says, “the topic of discussion is not against Sonu Nigam or the highest paid singer. I select singers purely on their performance and their necessity with the tune. All these days I have produced scoring based only on this. So, I’m really not worried of remuneration packages or the audio market.” Music director G Abhiman Roy shares an opinion that music directors should make better use of local singers than singers from bollywood. “What’s the point in paying a lakh to a singer who doesn’t know anything about Kannada language and sinigs songs in English notes. I have al ways tried to give out new opportunities to budding local singers than others. Local singers know the language and they also know the meaning of every word. So, the output of th quality will be at par than non-speaking Kannada singers. Hope the local singers will deserve good remuneration packages,” says Abhiman. With more number of films seeing success in box office and new singers are being shown a good plat form in singing, it has to be wait and seen whether the right one deserve good package in coming days.

Box Item:

Female Lead Singers

Supriya Ramachandran -8,000

Nanditha – 8,000

Shreya Ghoshal –50,000

Chitra – 8,000

Male Lead Singers

Sonu Nigam – 2.5 lakh

Kumar Sanu – 40,000

Badri Prasad – 10,000

Ramesh Chandra – 10,000

Udith narayan – 40,000

Karthik – 40,000

Rajesh Krishnan- 10,000

Hemanth – 10,000

Kunal Ganjawala – 40,000

S P Balasubramaniam – 40,000

Shankar Mahadevan – 40,000

Chetan – 10,000

L N Shastri – 10,000

Hariharan – 40,000

A file photo of music director G Abhiman Roy – Picture Courtesy K N Nagesh Kumar

It is called co-incidence in Kannada audio market. The hit song Khushiyagide Yeko…song was in fact composed for the film Bhanta, says music composer G Abhiman Roy

Bhanu Prakash E S

Not many in the Kannada film industry know that the hit song Khushiyagide Yaako… was in fact composed for the movie Bhanta and not for the movie Taj Mahal. G Abhiman Roy who composed the song became a star overnight and the movie Taj Mahal completed 100 days with good response from audiences all over the state.

Abhiman gushed that he was very happy with the popularity of the “When the producer of the film Bidda approached me to compose a song, gave them Khushiyaagide Yaaako. But they didn’t liked it because the song was too hippy for them. Around the same time director Chandru approached me to compose music for the film Taj mahal . I just played the song. He immediately agreed to incluude it in the film. And the rest is history. The song has been topping the charts for the last three months,’ says Abhian proudly.

Poster of the filim Ullasa – Picture Courtesy K N Nagesh Kumar\

Watch out for the edy bike action stunts in the upcoming flick U0llasa starring Vijay Kumar and Ramya

Bhanu Prakash E S

Film makers in Kannada always have their last laugh when it comes to producing movies on par with Bollywood. There was a trend in two years back when Yash Chopra productions used high end imported bikes for heroes and villains. Very recently one could remember that in the film Drona, director Goldie Behl has used flashy foreign cars and bikes for actor Abhishek Bachan to catch the attention of young audiences. But when these same elements are used in Kannada films, something is always lacky.

However, director Prakash seems to be quite convinced by Bollywood films that indeed such movies can also be produced in Kannada given the right producer and star cast. Understanding the demand of youth crowd and their interests leaning towards bike affection, director Prakash has launched a film titled Ullasa starring debutant Vijay Kumar and Ramya in lead roles. “This tendency of having high end imported bikes among youth has increased in the last three to four years. As you can see on the roads Bangalore has the highest number of imported two wheelers as well as cars in all of South India. There could be many reasons for people to buy these imported wheels. In my film, we’ll be using more than 25 imported bikes to tell the audience that Kannada film industry has indeed grown to a stage where it can afford to show imported bikes on the screen,” says the director. Debutant actor Vijay Kumar has been specially trained for the last two years in handling imported bikes as all the 25 bikes in the film will have the capacity up to 1800 cc. Vijay Kumar has been a national chanmpion in MRF National Motor-cross Championship. And for the first time, the audience will also get to watch some dare devil action on the screen.

Before the film Ullasa, there was a similar experiment on bikes in Lockup Death which was directed by Shivamani. The movie which released 12 years back saw a tremendous success at the box office.  “I must mention that the film Lockup Death was written in those years keeping in mind that the regular formula of action can be extended to show stunning dare devilry action scenes on bikes. My movie inspire with many other directors in the South to experiment with similar challenges in their films. But now the old bikes have been replaced by new imported ones. Besides the highways have become much smoother and longer. So, it wouldn’t be a problem for any director or star cast to take up the challenge,’ says director Shivamani.

Though bikes in films are not new in Bollywood, it is still a novelty in the South. Heroines too are trying new grounds to keep pace with changing trends. Actress Ramya is one who doesn’t shy away from. The actress is all set to ride a Hyabusa in the film Ullasa. The film will feature imported bikes like Hayabusa, Suzuki Entrude and so on. If the movie gets its pie of share of success, more producers and directors may come forward to take up films on bikers.

Actress Nisha Kothari and Puneeth Rajkumar on the sets of teh film Raj – Picture Courtesty K N Nagesh Kumar

It’s six hours non-stop shooting of a song for the film Raaj makes it a record in the south after a similar song was shot for the bollywood flick Krish

Bhanu Prakash E S

It seems being a busy father and beautiful wife to take care, director Prem is not convinced with any more reasons to stop him from shooting for his current project Raj starring Puneeth Rajkumar and Nisha Kothari.  For the first time in the southern cinema, director Prem and the rest of the crew of the film Raj shot a song restlessly for more than five hours stretching from 11 pm to 5 in the morning in Mysore outskirts.

Fast wrap up

Sharing this with the DC, the director says that the entire crew of the film Raj was worked well to get the song in perfect motion with using high end production gadgets and an imported expensive camera from Mumbai. “For the first time, we are using a most expensive camera in the south. Apart from this fact, I’m very happy that i’ve a best of the crew on the board to really make my dreams come true. They have shown a great dedication through out the film without a single complaint. Even when we shot a song at night recently without a stop for more than six hours it was a clear indication that both Puneeth and Nisha are having a good time in the pre-production stage. . When I explained Puneeth that I need to shoot the song in the dark night without using any artificial night, he said he is ready to give the best. The answer came from the Nisha also. So, there was no problem to stop shooting the song. With using only two to three blue lights we shot the song in the night without a single hitch,” says director Prem.

Krish inspired

Whereas in reality, the director Prem had no clue to shoot the song as he wanted to shoot the song using artificial lights. “That’s true. Producer Krishna was also convinced that we are going to shoot the song some time in the middle of November. But I knew that I wanted to give my best shot by experimenting new angles at night. Some of my friends told me that it was only in hindi film Krish that the director had shot a song in the similar way. That portion of the song has turned out well and we are all quite happy with it,” says director Prem. The song written by lyricist Jayanth Kaikini was shot in Mysore.

Actress Biyanka Desai on the sets of the film Gulama – Picture Courtesty K N Nagesh Kumar

Debutant actress Biyanka Desai is the first actress in the Kannada film industry to design her own clothes for the film Gulama opposite Prajwal Devarj

Bhanu Prakash E S

Seems actresses have turned out to be designers these days in the Kannada film industry. Debutant actress Biyanka Desai becomes the first actress in Kannada films to design her own clothes for the film Gulama directed by debutant Tushar Ranganath and being produced by Ramu. The actress designs her own stylish clothes with specially stitched in Mumbai.

Well crafted

Director Tushar Ranganath is quite happy as the lead actress in the film is designing not only for her but for the lead actor Prjawal Devaraj also. “In terms of script requirement and contemporary film making, Biyanka Desai has understood everything. Apart from the fact that she is the lead actress, she has taken the complete responsibility of a professional costume designer. She used to bring new design style pages to my home and used to discuss on its requirement in the film. She also told me in many a time to watch Fashion TV if possible to get a latest knowledge on new trend in the film industry. Especially for one song, Biyanka Desai took over everything of wardrobe department and designed clothes for everyone including herself, Prjawal and co-tars.  They were all simple yet stylish in looks. Beyond all this designs were all apt to the script. Producer was really tensed that whether her new initiative would land us in trouble. But nothing has happened so far. There’s a great appreciation for her work. And we would continue to support her work,” says director Tushar Ranganath.