Theatre will never die, says Rajnikant

He started his career on stage and now Tamil superstar Rajnikant urges the film industry to encourage plays as he knows theatre will be there, always.
“Stage play will never die… it will stay forever. I started my career on stage. I have done over 25 plays in Bangalore. When my friends saw my performance on stage, they encouraged me to act in Tamil films. The first thing I did was to come to Chennai and join the film institute,” said Rajnikant Sunday.

He was speaking on the valedictory of Ninaivalaigal, a drama festival organised by South Indian Artists Association, Nadigar Sangam.

Walking down memory lane, Rajnikant said: “In 1979, when I started my career, I was denied entry into the Nadigar Sangam premise when I came on my scooter to watch the play ‘Ashok Chakravarthi’ featuring Sivaji Ganesan.

“But I’m lucky enough to have been associated with great actors like Sivaji Ganesan, N.T. Rama Rao and Raj Kumar. I expressed to them my desire to start a drama troupe that was received well by them,” he said.

He suggested that the South Indian Film Artistes Association should utilise the vacant space inside the premise of Nadigar Sangam by constructing a state-of-the-art auditorium. He feels it will fetch good money.

“We have space here. We should not keep it idle. I am here to do my best for the association. Let us build an auditorium here,” he said.

On the occasion, he honoured M.N. Rajam and Anjali Devi.

A play featuring Sarath Kumar, Radharavi and Swathi was staged.

Ouch! Bachchan Bahu turns Karate Kid

These days, Aishwarya is making more news in the Tamil film industry as her mania is crazing fans down south. The actress has been shooting simultaneously for Mani Ratnam’s bilingual flick “Raavan’ and Shankar’s “Endhiran’.

Earlier, she had mastered her enunciation of Tamil so fluently that Superstar Rajnikanth was floored by her Tamil.

Now, Aishwarya Rai has topped herself, with yet another achievement; by learning Karate for the film Endhiran. Endhiran features Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai in the lead and is produced by Sun Pictures. The film is directed by Shankar. In order to act in the stunt scenes, Aishwarya is learning karate.

Ramesh is running a karate school in Chennai. For the past 30 years he has been training karate to various actors. Since there is a scene where Aishwarya Rai has to fight, Shankar has decided to teach her karate. Now Ramesh is coaching her in karate. According to the sources they have stated early, since this scene is very important to film, so Ash is being trained in the martial art. Earlier Aishwarya learnt fencing for Jodha Akbar that won her appreciations.

Aishwarya’s Tamil Stumps Rajnikant

Aishwarya Rai has many hidden talents. One is her ability to grasp languages quickly.

This, the unit of Shankar’s Robot discovered while shooting with Aishwarya. She was required to hold her own against the glib-talking super-talking Rajni Sir.
“And since Tamil isn’t really familiar territory for Aishwarya everyone including Rajni Sir and director Shankar was ready for several re-takes as she got used to the dialogue.”

To everyone’s surprise Aishwarya got a grip of the language in no time at all.

“And she was soon rattling off the dialogues and getting hanged of the emotions with equal skill in both the Hindi and Tamil takes. So much so that Rajni Sir who has waited for decades to work with Aishwarya was taken aback.”

When asked about the above incident Aishwarya laughs, “Regional languages have never been a problem. I did a Bengali film Chokher Bali and I was able to get a hang of the complex intonations, though later they needed a particular sing-song tone and my voice had to be dubbed.”

But the buzz in Robot is that they are planning to retain her Tamil lines in the final print.

Says the actress from Ooty, “I’m not at familiar with Tamil. My mother tongue Tulu is very different from Tamil. But you must remember my first film River was in Tamil and I had to say lengthy lines in that film. From my beginnings with Mani Ratnam in Tamil to this my second Tamil film of my career….it’s been quite a journey.”

At the moment she’s shooting in the freezing cold in Oooty for Mani Ratnam with Abhishek. “We shifted from the jungles of Kerala to Ooty by car so I couldn’t accompany Abhishek. I’ve finished this schedule and go back to Shankar and Robot. Really gruelling.”