Vinayan cheats TV producer
An unsavoury facet of Vinayan's personality, director of many Malayalam hits, was revealed recently. Apparently, the director was sanctioned to direct a 300-episode mega serial for Thiruvananthapuram Doordarshan but since he was busy with Dadasahib  and War And Love , he sold the script to a studio owner-cum-TV producer for several lakhs. The producer went ahead and shot13 episodes with another director when two other producers surfaced and claimed that they had the serial's rights. They produced letters showing that Vinayan had taken money from them to write the script. When confronted, the director's curt reply was that he should not be dragged into unnecessary issues. The poor producer finally had to shell out a few lakhs to settle the issue. Now it's only war and not love between the TV producer and Vinayan.

Bechara Basheer
Liberty Basheer, owner of a theatre in north Kerala is very upset that he was not invited to the silver jubilee function of Mohanlal’s Narasimham. His theatre, which screened Narasimham, had suffered heavy damages due to the boisterous fans of the star and the distributor and producer had promised to pay for the damages. And when no money came forth, the least Basheer expected was to be remembered while the film’s success was being celebrated. Surely not too much to ask but then Basheer, filmmakers are known for their poor memory.

Narasimham image haunts Mohanlal
Mohanlal has given two successive flops -- Life Is Beautiful  and Shradha  -- in the wake of the superhit Narasimham . While the former failed while it attempted to digress from the Narasimham  mould of a larger-than-life image, the latter failed despite the ingredients of a commercial hit. This has reinforced the growing notion in the Malayalam industry that Mohanlal can click only in Narasimham  type films. This stereotyping of the star has waylaid plans of most directors having projects with him in the pipeline. Apparently, they are all working out script changes to suit his Narasimham  image.

Leading the pack is Priyadarshan, who has backed out of a Mohanlal project saying he needs to come up with something that can meet Narasimham 's stature. Sibi Malayil, who planned a film with newcomers and Mohanlal, is also having second thoughts. Even Kamal who is to direct a film with Lal in December has doubts whether only an action film with the star will sell.

Can Mohanlal still claim that Kerala audience is not image conscious and he's not bound in the Narasimham  mould? Especially when even his driver-turned-producer Anthony is reportedly trying to persuade Shaji Kailas-Ranjith, of Narasimham  fame, to make one more film on the same lines for his boss.

Fazil served notice
Joshi, the newly elected president of the technicians association has issued a show cause notice to Fazil, the director of Life Is Beautiful . His offense? He felt that the association had lost its relevance and said so. In a recent interview to a daily, Fazil remarked that hardly 100 members of the 3000-member association have renewed their membership. And even half of them, according to him, do not report for meetings. Well Fazil, you may think or feel what you want but next time better not blurt it out.

Dubai, the ambitious project of producer V B K Menon, starring Mammooty and Anjala Zhaveri has run into trouble. The film, shot entirely in Dubai, has been co-produced by a Dubaiite. To Menon’s bad luck however the co-producer ran out of money during the film’s shooting due to which not only was a song, meant to be picturised in Dubai, canceled but it also left the Kerala superstar as well as the crew literally stranded in Dubai. Some friends of Mammooty stepped in and helped out.

Menon had earlier produced Devasuram  with Mohanlal, which was a superhit, but his subsequent films turned out to be super flops. He also had to scrap a Mohanlal-Rajeevnath film after spending Rs 50 lakh on it because of a rift between the star and the director. It was reshot by Pratap Pothen but bombed. Menon then went into hiding and has resurfaced again with Dubai. Will Menon complete the film this time and save his skin or will his bad luck run for Dubai too?