Aamir Khan has been widely appreciated for Taare Zameen Par, a movie which marked his directorial debut. Kamal too joined in, when he announced the national-level Best Debutant Director Award on behalf of the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation. He was accompanied at the press conference by long-time friends Gollapudi Maruthi Rao and Singeetham Sreenivasa Rao.
Maruthi Rao, readers would recollect, featured in many Kamal movies including Hey Ram, Indrudu Chandrudu (Indran Chandran) and Swathi Muthyam (Sippikkul Muthu). This award is instituted in memory of his son, Srinivas, who died under tragic circumstances. This incident was used by Kamal in Anbe Sivam, with a reference to ‘tsunami’.
The sorrow is evident on his face in all the photos. Kamal participated in the homage function organized for Sujatha on Sunday, March 2.
Many of Kamal’s literary friends too can be seen in photos from Behindwoods. IndiaGlitz has photos and a video, featuring Kamal’s speech (with bad audio quality unfortunately).
There are a few more functions which Kamal attended recently. One was the wedding reception of director Ahathian’s daughter. More photos like the one below can be found at Behindwoods and KollywoodToday.com. Almost needless to say, IndiaGlitz has photos and a video. In the video, Kamal seems overly embarrassed by the couple falling at his feet.
Kamal continued his mission of honouring artistes of various fields by participating in a book release function a few days ago. Azhiyaa Kodugal was the biography of the renowned artist KM Aadimoolam, who coincidentally passed away last month. Hence, the function also turned out to be a homage meeting. Many famous personalities including Jayakanthan and Sivakumar also participated.
IndiaGlitz has more photos and a nice video, featuring Kamal’s full speech. Kamal revealed that the angry Gandhi drawing featured in Hey Ram was done by Aadimoolam.
Hridaya Ragam is a project to conduct open-heart surgeries for children (each costing 100,000 Rupees) from the lower strata of society. While the original target was 100, it has increased by 25% due to generous donation from the Malayala Manorama group. The requisite money will be collected by means of a music programme at Chennai, featuring folks from the Malayalam film industry and to be inaugurated by Illaiyaraaja. Kamal has associated himself as project ambassador. In the function / press conference held a few days ago, Kamal launched the ticket sales.
Thanks to ‘vivekforbes’, we get to see Kamal as we have never seen before! This footage compiled during Virumaandi, starts with a sarcastic dig at the politician who opposed the original name of ‘Sandiyar’ and moves onto show Kamal’s passion in direction, stunts and music. The source of the video is unknown.
There’s some more stuff to be shared on the AIDS campaign. We start with the earlier-mentioned TV ad. Then, we have a news snippet from IBNLive, which also touches upon Dasavatharam, including sound bites from Asin.
Kamal launched the audio of Sila Nerangalil, starring Vincent Ashokan and Navya Nair.
As always, there are more photos to browse through at Behindwoods. KollywoodToday.com has similar photos and a video (that resembles one that is done for wedding receptions).
Kamal was in Hyderabad a few days ago to promote Raghavan, the Telugu-dubbed version of Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. Idlebrain.com put up some nice pictures, including tight close-ups. IndiaGlitz topped it with its usual array of photos plus a video. The speeches are short, with Kamal talking partly in Telugu. The video itself starts off with the racy title track (in Telugu, of course) playing in the background.
Fans from Hyderabad had lamented that the pre-release publicity for this movie was really low-key. The producers seem to be making up by getting Kamal and Gautham to attend this event now. With the movie trying its luck at a time when twin tragedies have struck Hyderabad, this late effort should help anyway.
There have been murmurs for some time now that Dasavatharam may be further delayed, with the release pushed out to Pongal (January 14). Somehow, songs still remaining to shot seems unbelievable. While we await confirmation, let’s continue with the rumours and teasers.
Kamal spoke to NDTV recently. Watch the video, where he cryptically confirms few of the rumours doing the rounds. He promises that the movie will go beyond the “gimmick” of him playing 10 roles.
Meanwhile, the rumours seem to have hit a peak — Behindwoods talks about employing atomic bomb explosions under the sea for the tsunami said to be featured in the movie!
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