Cine News Digest: 04 Feb 2025

Dulquer Salmaan’s Pan-Indian Movie

Dulquer Salmaan’s multi-lingual project, Kaantha, has attracted renewed interest after the release last Friday of the promotional posters. The title and the look of the first poster creates an expectation that it is a biopic on legendary yesteryear actor M.R. Radha – the father of MR Radhika and Radharavi.

Dulquer Salman is also co-producing the film with Rana Dagubatai. The movie is directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, the director of the webseries, The Hunt for Veerappan. All that has been revealed by the team thus far is that it is a period film set in Chennai in the 1950s. This, together with Dulquer Salmaan’s comment that he got to play “a timeless role in a timeless story” has fueled rumours that it is likely a biopic on the popular but controversial figure, MR Radha who was the person who in January 1967 shot MG Ramachandran at point-blank ranging before turning the gun on himself – Miraculously, both survived.

The first-look poster of the film released to mark Dulquer Salmaan’s 13^th year in the film industry.

 

Silambarasan turns producer

On the occasion of Silambarasan TR’s birthday yesterday, the actor announced that he would be turning producer for his 50^th film – which will be directed by Desingh Periyasamy. The period film will see STR in a dual role.

The film was initially pitched to Rajinikanth but the project did not materialise. It was then supposed to have been produced by Kamalhaasan’s Raaj Kamal Films International but that deal also fell through. Yuvanshankar Raja will score the music. STR has christened his production company Atman Cine Arts.

 

Silambarasan and Ashwath Marimuthu in new collaboration

Also announced on STR’s birthday is his 51^st film, a fantasy commercial entertainer titled God Of Love. The film will be directed by Ashwath Marimuthu, the director of Ashok Selvan’s Oh My Kadavule and the forthcoming Pradeep Ranganathan starrer, Dragon.

 

Silambarasan teams up with the director of Parking

Yet another announcement made yesterday is Simbhu’s next film which will be directed by Ramkumar Balakrishnan, the director of the hit film Parking. The film will be produced by Dawn Pictures. Further details will be announced this Friday, 07 February.

 

Change announced for Sivakarthikeyan’s 24^th film

Ahmed, the director of Ravi Mohan’s forthcoming film, Iraivan, has replaced Cibi Chakravarthy as director of Sivakarthikeyan’s 24^th film. Chakravarthy made a memorable debut with Don and fans were excited about their planned second collaboration. No reasons were announced for the change.

Sudha Kongara’s surprise signing for her next film

Director Sudha Kongara (Iruthi Suttru and Soorarai Pottru) who is currently working on Sivakarthikeyan’s 25^th film, Parasakthi, has concluded talks for her next project which will have Dhruv Vikram in the lead role. The film will be produced by Shanthi Talkies.

 

Madhavan-Siddharth starrer, Test, to release soon.

The long-delayed Madhavan- Siddharth starrer, Test will skip a theatrical release and release directly on Netflix. The film also stars Nayanthara and Meera Jasmine and will mark the debut of singer Shaktisree Gopalan as a music composer. Produced by Y Not Studios, the film is directed by newcomer, S Sashikanth.