As everybody knows, Mani Ratnam is a perfectionist. He never sits content till he gets the desired result from a shot. Recently, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan came to know of it the hard way.
Ash has been shooting for Mani’s bilingual in Tamil and Hindi, tentatively titled ‘Ravan’/'Asokavanam’. In the second half of the film, Ash is playing a grief-stricken woman, and Mani wanted his leading leady to be make up-less so as to portray her role well.
According to Kollyhood News, Ash was not happy with the demands made by the director and whenever possible, she tried to put on a basic make up. But, most of the time, she was caught red-handed by the director and was asked to remove them!
The buzz is that Mani Ratnam is not talking kindly to actors leaking out details of their roles in Ravan and is most upset by references to the epic Ramayana. As a result, he has decided to drop the mythological parallels altogether from the film.
Over the months, actors from Ravan have been describing their roles in the film conjuction with the names from the original Ramayana. For instance, Ravi Kishen is supposed to be playing Vibhishan while Nikhil Dwivedi is Laxman. It was also rumored that Govinda plays Hanuman while Abhishek, Aiswarya and Vikram play Ravan, Sita and Rama. The director is charmed by these leaked reports.
So, Mani, it is learnt has decided to do away with the mythological connect altogether. None of the film’s character will have mythological names. He may also change the film’s title to avoid further mythological controversies regarding his very contemporary character’s antecedents.
Director Bala couldn’t have asked for a better way to start the New Year. The audio of his film Naan Kadavul which stars Arya and Pooja in the lead, was released on New Year and the trailer which was screened on the occasion only raised expectations.
The function was attended by a host of stars, directors, producers and technicians including directors BaluMahendra and Mani Ratnam, and actors Surya and Vikram. On this occasion Balu MAhendra said, “Mark my words; this movie will fetch several awards in the International Circiut.” Also he added, “There was a time when I used to consider you as my kid. Now I look up at you as you’ve risen to Himalayan heights.”
Music Director Illayaraja, who has cored music for the film, was not seen at the function. However, Uttam Singh and Lyricist Valli represented him at the event.
