Vimala turns glam for Sevakudu

Vimala Raman is all set to turn glamorous for the Telugu film,Sevakudu. She will be playing the lead opposite Srikanth. Directed by V. Samudra,Sevakudu is a cop story. Srikanth Deva will compose the films music.
It might be recalled that Vimala made her debut with Poi,directed by critically-acclaimed director K.Balachander. But the film bombed at the box-office and proved to be a non-starter for the beautiful actress,who had won the Miss India Australia title. She then tried her luck in Malayalam films. She starred opposite Ajmal Ameer,another debutant,in Pranayakaalam. She later acted opposite almost all the prominent stars in Malayalam cinema like Mohanlal,Mammootty,Suresh Gopi,Jayaram and Dileep,but her career failed to take off. It remains to be seen whether the glam avatar pays off.

Viswanathan to compose for Kannada film
After producing melodious scores in Malayalam films,Kaithapram Viswanathan is now making a foray into Kannada films as music director for Vismayapranaya. Viswanathan,whose work has brought several state awards to singers including K. J. Yesudas,will be composing five songs for Vismayapranaya which tells the story of a woman with a split personality.
Younger brother of topnotch lyricist Kaithapram Damodaran Namboodiri,Viswanathan believes that music has no language barriers. So far,my songs have been received well by the Malayali audience. I am sure I will be accepted in Kannada films too, said Viswanathan.
An alumnus of Thiruvananthapuram Music College,Viswanathan made his debut with Kaliyattam directed by national award-winning director Jayaraj. Earlier,he had handled the orchestra for the songs of his brother in Jayarajs Desatanam,a moving story of a boy being forced into spiritual life by his parents. Since then he has composed music for about 20 films,many of which were directed by Jayaraj,including Kannaki and Thilakkam.
Besides Yesudas,his scores had been rendered by top singers like P. Jayachandran,K. S. Chithra and G Venugopal,who won the state award for best singer for the film Ullam.
Viswanathan feels that for a music director there is no point in confining himself to films in ones own language. This is especially so in Malayalam cinema,where the number of songs in a movie is less compared to the past, he said.
In contrast to Tamil and Hindi,Malayalam filmdom was a small industry with limited market. Songs were still important in Tamil films where the audience were ardent fans of music of all typesclassical,folk and pop,he said. However,no one can deny the fact that musicians and composers from Kerala were as good as maestros from other parts of the country.
The contributions made by veteran music directors G. Devarajan,K. Raghavan,Dakshinamoorthy,M. S. Baburaj and M. S. Viswanathan would remain etched in the minds of music lovers for ever,Viswanathan said. Born in Kannadi Illam in a village near Payyanur in North Kerala,Viswanathan had his early lessons in music from his father Kesavan Namboodiri,who was known as Kannadi Bhagavathar.
His elder brother Damodaran Namboodiri groomed him into music and has written lyrics for most of his songs. Though I have tried my hand in all sorts of songs including rhythm-based numbers which is a hit with youngsters,my forte is melody, Viswanathan said.

Malayalam artistes agree to cut remuneration by 25 per cent
Malayalam film artistes,who earn over Rs 3 lakh,recently agreed to cut their remuneration by 25 per cent following a request from producers that superstars should scale down their salaries to bring down production cost. The agreement was reached at a meeting of Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes AMMA and The Kerala Film Producers Association in Kochi.
Speaking to reporters in Kochi,Sabu Cherian,president of the Producers Association,said that 50-60 per cent of their expenses now were going as salaries of artistes. The decision to reduce the remuneration by 25 per cent by artistes will be a great relief to film producers, he said. Innocent,President of AMMA,said its members would be urged to strictly comply with the decision. Prominent film actors would also be requested to keep away from reality shows,he said.