News has been flowing ever since Dasavathaaram ticket sales opened on June 8, from around the world. Several theatres in Chennai are booked for many days together. IndiaGlitz, Chennai365 and News Today carried reports. Galatta.com had photos while Sify.com too joined in, along with a video!

Fellow-blogger Balabharathi reported suspicious activity at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai.

Meanwhile, Kamal has requested his fans to tone down any celebrations for the release, so that the general public can watch the movie peacefully.

[With inputs from Ananth]

Here are some more articles on Kamal and Dasavathaaram that appeared on Rediff.com.

The first one is an interview with Thota Tharani, one of the three art directors. He shares his experiences along with some drawings, including scenes in the Oval Office and involving the Tsunami. Below are a couple of his thoughts on Kamal. Enjoy the whole article!

I have done more than eight films with Kamal, and between us, we have won 5-6 major awards including national awards for Nayagan and Indian. We also won the state awards for Raja Parvai and Sagara Sangamam.

Kamal is unlike any other artiste I have seen. That is why I was asked to create a story board for Dasavathaaram. Though I am not a story board artiste, Kamal and I sat together and did this story board on the tsunami.

Then, we have an interview with yet another Kamal fan, Malayalam actor Jayasurya. One would remember that he did a small but effective role in Vasool Raja MBBS. Highlights:

He is, without a doubt one of the greatest actors we have in Indian cinema as well as the world.

He has born to be an actor, no doubt about that. He takes only seconds to become the character. He improvises the mannerisms and dialogues as the shots are being canned. In fact, I did ask him about this and was surprised when he said that it was one trait he learnt from Malayalam cinema.

Movies are important to him like the air we breathe. His passion for the medium is truly commendable, and perhaps that gives him the strength to try out new experiments. He has set a different standard for himself and is a league apart from almost every other actor in the business.

Finally, Rediff.com came up with a slideshow on Kamal’s interesting ‘avatars’, which though slipshod, is worth looking at.

[With inputs from A1]

Kamal seemed to have gone underground after the April 25 Dasavathaaram audio release function and now finally emerged out of it. The reason was another such function, that of Jayamkondaan, starring Vinay and Bhavan, and directed by Kannan. The event featured many other industry personalities including Mani Ratnam.

Kamal welcomed corporate entities into the industry, in response to concerns raised by one of the speakers. As usual, he displayed his foresight and adaptability. An interesting tidbit that surfaced in the event was that Jeyam Ravi had worked as assistant director to Suresh Krissna in Aalavandhaan.

Read reports from Sify.com, Yahoo, Behindwoods, IndiaGlitz and News Today.

Kamal’s get-up seemed intact, except for a thicker beard than earlier.

Check out more photos at Behindwoods, KollywoodToday.com and IndiaGlitz.

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

We are just into the “hurricane season” in USA and it looks like the first one will be Hurricane Dasavathaaram! The number of prints (more than 40 for Tamil and Telugu) and celebrations across the country has been unprecedented.

The highlight of these celebrations has been the Dasavathaaram Dosa event, first in Chicago and then in the San Francisco Bay Area. Featuring 10 varieties of the Indian food item, the event also distributed free tickets to fans.

Sify.com put up an extensive list of theatres and show timings. Read more from KollywoodToday.com, Thatstamil and Webdunia.

[With inputs from Ananth]

[Picture courtesy: BehindWoods]

After a whole lot of back and forth confusion, the ‘final’ final release date of Dasavathaaram is June 13 (June 12 in some locations).

News has been pouring in, ranging from 1200 prints to theatres in Chennai (Sify.com | Behindwoods | Yahoo | CineSouth). Mumbai is excited to the extent of a closed theatre being re-opened temporarily. Below is a hoarding / billboard in Kerala.

[With extensive inputs from Ananth]

Here are the few pre-shoot stills of Marudhanayagam stills that made their way to the Net today! We can immediately relate it to the famous trailer that came out quite a while ago. Enjoy!

Dasavathaaram has been getting quite a bit of publicity in all kinds of media. (The Hindi version, Dashavtar hasn’t had the same coverage though.) As part of it, we had two interviews recently, one with Kamal in Deccan Herald and another with Devisri Prasad on Rediff.com.

First, let’s hear it from Kamal:

Obviously this is what fuels all my passion for work. For a creative person, two factors act as fuel— the other being constructive criticism.

From Hollywood my favourites are Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers. From India, I am also a huge fan of Yusuf saab (Dilip Kumar). Sanjeev Kumar was another favourite. We worked together in Yaadgar and it was a great experience. We had another great common interest— food!

Knowledge should be acquired from anywhere in the world. Haven’t we taken the best in medicine and education from the West? The West has also taken a lot from us. We have been an international country now for 2000 years!

The standards of Hindi cinema have risen very highly in the last few years, especially in the matter of acting and technology. I keep telling our industry here that Hindi films are really beginning to give South Indian cinema a run for our money.

We have heard Devisri Prasad gush about working on Dasavathaaram before. Here’s more, where he also reveals that he did the background score for the trailer too:

One day I got a call from his office asking me for a meeting. We had a casual meeting at his office. I asked about his films. He asked me about my work — where I record and how. It was more of a general chat.

The producer said that Kamal Sir had seen a few films of mine and loved my style. He said he would really be happy if I did the background score so he asked me to find out. I fell off my chair when I heard it.

I went and we watched the film in the editing room. What was great about him was even though the voice work and other things were not done, like an assistant director he was prompting and telling me all the dialogues in sync with the scenes.

The greatest thing about him is, he always asks for our time. He doesn’t ask ‘would you come tomorrow?’ Rather he will say ‘are you free tomorrow?’

One day he called me to his office to show the promos. He took me around and showed me his conference room, his home theatre etc. He did not act like a star. At that moment he was just a simple man switching on the lights, fans and DVD player. I was shocked to see him take such pains to show me around.

I love him as a singer too and I want to make him sing a song soon. I hope he would do it for me. Kamal Sir has been a great inspiration for me.

In time for Dasavathaaram, Rediff.com provides continued focus on Kamal. Here, we cover a few recent pieces.

Madhavan declared himself a “hardcore Kamal fan”. Let’s have a few excerpts before you read the full interview.

After I started acting in television, people would call me for award functions. I accepted their invitations only to see Kamal Haasan in person. I would scream myself hoarse when he went to collect the awards.

That was when I met Kamal Sir for the first time in a hotel, where I was having dinner. He came over to me and said, ‘Madhavan, I have seen some of your work and they were good.’ You could have knocked me down with a feather, so great was my shock.

Working in the film was like studying in a university. Every minute I shot with him was pregnant with information. He was like a father figure to me on the sets.

What I learnt from him was that there is no shot in the world which is simple and can be taken lightly, and that you should give a hundred percent to every shot. It is amazing to see his dedication to each shot even after being in the industry for so many years. You see child-like enthusiasm, missionary zeal and extreme passion in each shot.

Then, we had a slideshow on some of Kamal’s movies in Kannada and Telugu. Check it out for some valuable information on unfamiliar movies like Kokila and Benkiyalli Aralida Hoovu.

Finally, Rediff.com gives us an interesting look at his past heroines from Srividhya to Sridevi and Madhavi to Amala.

The last two pieces also feature some superb rare stills.

[With inputs from A1]