Another Deol enters the movie world

In view of the flop of his last movie, Jhoota Hi Sahi, director Abbas Tyrewala says he intends to stay away from making romances. The talented director, who also made Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, says his next movie will be a dark espionage action thriller, for which he hopes to cast Paresh Rawal and Naseerudin Shah.

FOLLOWING much delay, Aamir Khan has confirmed that Delhi Belly will be released on July 1. The movie, which is produced by Khan, features the recently married Imran Khan, Vir Das and Shehnaaz Treasurywalla.

SHREYAS Talpade has reason to smile. After the mega success of the last Golmaal movie, the talented actor has been signed to play Akshay Kumar's brother in Joker that is being made by Shirish Kunder. Sonakshi Sinha is Akshay's leading lady in the movie.

AFTER a long list of Deols, including Sunny, Bobby, Esha and Abhay, get ready for another Deol. Ahana Deol, the younger daughter of Dharmendra and Hema Malini, is set to make her Bollywood debut and there are rumours that Vikramaditya Motwane of Udaan fame will direct her.

WITH her career not going great guns, Celina Jaitley recently got engaged to Dubai hotelier Peter Haag. The couple has been dating for the past 10 months. According to Jaitley, marriage may take place only in two years.

FANS of Illaiya Thallabadhi Vijay had quite a shock when Kavalan was pulled out of the Pongal line-up at the 11th hour. There were numerous financial issues that remained unresolved even a day before the scheduled release. The details about the fiasco remain unclear but one can surmise a lot from the fact that the name of Shakthi Chidhambaram as producer was omitted from the newspaper advertisements. It was Vijay who had to step in and, according to unconfirmed reports, had to personally pay 35-million rupees (approximately R6-million) to have the film released.

COMPOSER Yuvanshanker Raja's first live concert , Yuvan, held in Chennai a week ago, surpassed all expectations. It was a high-tech, highly charged concert with talented singers Karthik, Vijay Yesudas, Shanker Mahadevan, Haricharan, Tanvi Shah, Rahul Nambiar and Shreya Ghosal. The concert had a record crowd and will soon be shown on Vijay TV, one of the organisers of the event.

DIRECTOR KV Anand (Kanaa Kanndain and Ayan) has titled his next film Maatran. It will once again see Surya play the lead role. The lead actress has not yet been chosen. Surya's first film for Anand was Ayan, the biggest box-office hit of 2009 that recorded the third-biggest takings of all time of any Tamil film in the Chennai district. Anand is confident that his production team, which remains the same as that of Ayan, will be able to replicate this success in Maatran. Meanwhile, excitement is mounting ahead of Anand's current project, Ko, which will be released soon. Ko features Jeeva and Ajmal in the lead roles. Karthika Nair, daughter of 1980s actress Radha, will play the female lead.

DIRECTOR Selvaraagavan, brother of actor Dhanush, is to marry again this June. Selva married actress Sonia Agarwall in 1996 but the couple were divorced last year. He will now be marrying 23-year-old Geethanjali, who is his directorial assistant in his current film, Irandaam Ulagam.

PRAKASH Raj's bilingual film on the hijacking of Indian airlines flight IC 841, Payanam, will be released on February 4 in Tamil and Telugu. Nagarjunna plays the lead in both versions. First introduced to Tamil audiences in Udhayam, he became a well-known face after playing the lead role in Manirathinam's Idhayathai Thirudaathey and shot to greater fame after playing the lead role in KT Kunjommon's Ratchagan. Payanam will be directed by Radha Mohan, the director of Azhagiya Theeye.