CHENNAI - She is one of the highest paid actresses in the south Indian film industry, but right now Nayantara is under parental surveillance, thanks to rumours of her marriage with dancing star Prabhu Deva.

The two met on the sets of “Villu”, the film didn’t work but their friendship blossomed. According to sources, Prabhu Deva was at that time mourning the death of his 10-year-old son who was suffering from cancer and Nayantara had just split from actor Silambarrasan. Industry insiders say that fate brought them together.

The actress is said to be so much in love with Prabu Deva that she has tattooed his name on her left hand. Early this month, it was reported that the two have secretly tied the knot in Tirupathi. They were reportedly spotted shopping in Dubai last week.

Nayantara’s parents are now a worried lot and have told their daughter that they would accompany her everywhere. They have even told her that in case she didn’t agree to this, they would stop her from acting.

The actress is, therefore, seen regularly with her parents on movie sets. She may not be enjoying their forced company, but the production executives of her films are surely at the receiving end - they now have to look after the needs of Nayantara’s parents as well, informed sources said.

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K. Bhagyaraj makes ‘First Attempt’ to boost son’s career

Veteran Tamil filmmaker K. Bhagyaraj has secretly shot a film “First Attempt” to boost his son Shantanu’s career. The film was wrapped up in just a few months.

Bhagyaraj, who was hugely disappointed by the failure of his son’s launch pad “Sakkarakatti”, wanted to give his career a new lease of life and “First Attempt” is an earnest attempt by him towards making Shantanu a saleable hero.

He launched the film with the title “Pudhiya Vaarpugal”, but had to change it due to reports that it would be a remake of his eighties blockbuster with the same name.

The film is likely to release sometime in August.

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Priyamani too goes to Bollywood

After Asin Thottumkal, Genelia D’ Souza, Shriya Saran and Trisha, another southern actress Priyamani is set to enter the Hindi film industry with Mani Ratnam’s “Ravanan”, that has Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan in the lead.

Priyamani will portray the same role in the Hindi version of “Ravanan” that she did in the Tamil. Priyamani is excited about the significance of her character in the film.

The actress, who has done reasonably well in all the south Indian movies, is also looking forward to “Aarumugam”. She is in awe of director Suresh Krissha and says she liked his style of doing things silently and effectively.

“I have become kind of a glamour doll after ‘Paruthiveeran’. One can’t keep on doing the same roles, isn’t it? Suresh has given me a lot of scope to act in the film. In fact, I haven’t done anything extra other than following in letter and spirit what Suresh asked me to do,” said Priyamani, who has been a sizzler for the past couple of years in all her movies.

Priyamani also disclosed that she would be dubbing in her own voice in her future Malayalam movies so that she won’t miss out on awards when the films reach that level.

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‘Kuppi’ Ramesh wants to make film on LTTE supremo

Director A.M.R. Ramesh, who made “Kuppi” a film about Sivarasan, the assassin of late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, now wants to make a film on the life of the slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Ramesh is also working on another interesting project - he is re-making Kannada film “Police Quarters” in Tamil as “Kaavaral Kudiyiruppu”. The film is a real-life story that took place in a police quarters in Karnataka in the early nineties.

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No takers for Vishal

It seems there are no takers for Tamil action star Vishal in southern filmdom as his much-hyped home production “Thoranai” is still in the cans and the producer of his romantic film “Theeratha Vilaiyattu Pillai” has backed out.

The film was to be made by Ramesh, who produced his “Pokiri” a few years ago. But he has shelved it after seeing the debacle of “Thoranai”.

Unfazed by this, Vishal got in touch with a few production houses, but the response was said to be far from encouraging. Finally, he has decided to make “Theeratha” under his own banner G.K. Film Corporation.

However his brother Vikram Krishna, owner of G.K. Film, felt that the audiences won’t accept him in in a ‘romantic’ role in “Theeratha” and has asked Vishal to make necessary changes in the script to suit his action hero image.

The story-writer is apparently making relevant changes in the script to suit Vishal’s onscreen image.