Cine News Digest – 29 June 2025

The official international box-office figures for the first half of 2025 have just been released. Despite the mixed to negative reviews, Ajithkumar has taken first and third positions with Good Bad Ugly (Rs 245.1 crores) and Vidaa Muyarchi (Rs 138.1 crores)respectively. Pradeep Ranganathan’s Dragon held firm at number 2 with R151.85 crores, while the surprise 4^th was the Kamalhaasan-Mani Ratnam combination, Thug Life with Rs 98.55 crores. In fifth place was Suriya’s Retro with R97.55 crores.

Making up the rest of the Top 10 is the Sasikumar-Simran starrer, Tourist Family at number 6 with Rs 85.55 crores amd Vikram’s Veera Dheera Sooran with Rs 68.6 crores in seventh position. Sundar C’s long delayed Vishal starrer, Madha Gaja Raja took eighth position with Rs 62.95 crores. Another movie that had mixed reviews but fared well was Suri’s Maaman which held a respectable ninth position with Rs 55.55 crores. Manikandan’s family comedy drama, Kudumbasthan came tenth with Rs 30.1 crores.

Still to release in the second half of the year are films like Rajinikanth’s Coolie, Sivakarthikeyan’s Madrasi, Dhanush’s Idly Kadai and Karthi’s Sardar 2.

Kamalhaasan has accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a panelist to vote on awardees for the prestigious Academy Awards also known as the Oscars. He was one of 534 global artists who were invited earlier this week – an invitation that he accepted earlier today. The 70-year old actor will complete 65 years in the industry on 12 August this and has been a leading figure in every aspect of filmmaking, including scriptwriting, screenplay writing, production, directing, singing, song writing, dance choreography, editing and make-up.

Ajithkumar’s 64^th film will be formally announced this August. Produced by Vels Film International, the film will have music by G.V. Prakash Kumar and stunts by Supreme Sundar. The rest of the cast and crew of this action thriller will be announced at the formal launch.

S.U. Arunkumar, the director of Siddharth’s Chiththa and Vikram’s Veera Dheera Sooran, is in talks with Kamalhaasan’s Raaj Kamal Film International to direct their next film. The industry buzz last week was that Kamalhaasan would play the lead role, but that has since been refuted. More details on this project when it is formally launched.

Sivakarthikeyan is now in great demand. He is currently shooting for Sudha Kongara’s Parasakthi and will be teaming up with director Venkat Prabhu (Director of The Greatest of all Time and Maanaadu) for a fantasy adventure based on time-travel. The rest of the cast is currently being finalised.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports of talks in an advanced stage about a sequel to the hugely successful T.R. Silambarasan starrer, Maanaadu. Venkat Prabhu has confirmed that he has already developed a storyline for the sequel. The project will be formally launched in 2026.

Sivakarthikeyan will also soon begin work on his 24^th film which will be directed by Vinayak Chandrasekaran, the director of the sleeper hit Good Night. Mohanlal has been approached to play the role of Sivakarthikeyan’s father in this currently untitled film which will be a family drama.

Arya’s 35^th film – titled Ananthan Kaadu – will be directed by Jiyen Krishnakumar, the director of Run Baby Run. The dual language venture was made simultaneously in Tamil and Malayalam and has music by B. Ajaneesh Loknath.

Stunt director Anl Arasu turned director through the recently launched movie, Phoenix. The film sees Vijay Sethupathy’s son, Surya Sethupathy, making his debut as a lead actor. The action drama also stars Varaluxmi Sarathkumar, Devadharshini, Sampath, Muthukumar and Adukalam Naren.

Varaluxmi Sarathkumar is to make her international debut when she shares the screen with Oscar Award-winning British actor Jeremy Irons for the forthcoming film, Rizana – A Caged Bird. The film has most of its scenes shot on location in Sri Lanka.

After successive box-office hits with Love Today and Dragon, Pradeep Ranganathan will return to direction after completing work on his current film, Dude. His next directorial will be a science fiction film that will see Pradeep play the lead role. Dude is currently in post-production and features music by Sai Abhyankar.

Thyagarajan, the father of actor Prashanth, is currently negotiating to cast one of the daughters of actress Devayaani in his next film, a remake of the Telugu film Court.

Businessman-turned-actor, “Legend” Saravanan who made his acting debut with the 2023 movie, Legend, will release his second film this Deepavali, Directed by Durai Senthilkumar (Pattas, Edhir Neechal and Kodi), the film also stars Telugu actress Payal Rajput, Andrea Jeremiah and Shaam.

Vetrimaaran is in talks with Manikandan to play a major role in his next film. At this stage, it is unclear whether it is the same film that features T.R. Silambarasan in the lead role.

Kodambakkam is still reeling from shock and embarrassment after popular actor Shrikanth (Parthiban Kanavu, Roja Kootam and Nanban) was arrested on charges of drug trafficking. A police spokesperson said that there was a high possibility of other high profile personalities from within the film industry who will soon be arrested. Shrikanth has reportedly given a detailed report about the modus operandi of the operation. The case is till under investigation.