Everybody wants a piece of Kangana

Kangana Ranaut is a busy lady. And since her mind-blowing performance in Queen, the lovely actress has been flooded with offers.

Ranaut rushed off her feet

Sadly, however, she has now opted out of the title character of Durga Rani Singh and instead will work on Divine Lovers with Irfan Khan, as well as the Karan Johar production Ungli with Emraan Hashmi. Then there are hot rumours that she has been signed by Reema Kagti of Talaash fame for a new movie opposite Saif Ali Khan.

Kapoor Khan tries again

It seems like Kareena Kapoor Khan is rethinking her career. After a flop with Gori Tere Pyaar Mein, Kapoor Khan has confirmed some new projects. She will return with Ajay Devgn in the eagerly awaited cop flick Singham Returns and has been signed opposite Akshay Kumar in Singh is Bling, made by the brilliant Prabhudeva.

Newcomer makes good

Actor Karunagaran is a relative newcomer to the Tamil film scene, but his two films - Soodhu Kavvum and the recently released Yaamirukku Bayameh - have set the box office on fire and enjoyed rave reviews from critics. Now he has been added to the cast of Rajinikanth's Lingaa and will participate in a 20-day shooting schedule. That's a meteoric rise for someone who has just entered the film scene.

Debut strikes gold

Naveen Raghavan has struck gold with his first directorial venture, Manja Pai, which was released worldwide last week. The film stars Vimal, Lakshmi Menon and Rajkiran in the lead roles. The first-day taking was 70% of that enjoyed by Rajinikanth's Kochadaiyaan. This makes it Vimal's strongest opening yet.

Horror comedy on cards

The eagerly anticipated Venkat Prabhu film with Surya has been titled Poochandi. Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Amy Jackson will share the female lead and Yuvanshanker Raja will score the music. Rumour has it that it will be a horror comedy.

Singing slur leaves him unfazed

A social media war threatened to get out of control last week after the broadcast of an interview with Soundarya Rajinikanth Ashwin in which she said that Simbhu ought not to sing.

Soundarya felt comfortable making the comment as she and Simbhu had been childhood friends, but Silambarasan's fans did not take kindly to what they perceived to be a slur and flooded Soundarya's Twitter time line with abuse before Simbhu stepped in with an appeal to his fans to desist. Soundarya and Simbhu seem to have put the nasty incident behind them.

Hoping for better luck in Tamil

Karthi is confident that his next film, Madras, will change his run of ill luck at the box office. Originally titled Kali, this film will see Karthi play the lead opposite Catherine Teresa, who makes her debut in Tamil. The film will be directed by Ranjith of Attakathi fame.

Shalandra Bunseelal and Devan Nair