வெள்ளி, ஆகஸ்ட் 04, 2006

I am not suffering from any disease- Simran

She is in love with Raju Sundaram.She breaks away with Raju Sundaram.Raju - Simran in love despite pressures from their families.Simran is getting married.End of Raju - Simran relationship.Simran is drunk and misbehaves in the airport.Simran dismissed her manager.Confusions galore in Simran’s call sheets.Blue film starring Simran.Simran is afflicted with AIDS.
These are some of the cine headlines that appeared within a period of last three months. May be in the last 70 years of the history of Tamil cinema no other actress than Simran would have got embroiled in the rumour mill running around Kollywood. And finally Simran thought that she has had enough of it and called for a press meet last Sunday. No doubt she tried to remain calm and answer all the questions patiently. But she could not control her emotions completely. She smiled now and then and was angry many a time. However, she tried to remain and appear calm and collected. Here are the questions put to her and her answers to them.
Are you in love with Raju Sundaram?When I get married I will certainly announce it well ahead of the date. It is only you, the press people, who have conducted my marriage several times in the past even before I got the scent of it.
Are you in love with Raju Sundaram or not?Whoever be I am in love with. I will get married only after telling you all and inviting you all.
Is there any truth at all in the news items that appeared that you are in love with Raju Sundaram, or are they utter falsehood?Yes. It is true that I am in love with him
When are you getting married?It has not yet been decided.
But, only you have been speaking about being in love with Raju. He is not opening his mouth on this…Only he has to answer this question.
It is said that his mother has put a condition that you should not act in movies after the marriage and also that your mother has not agreed to this….Nothing to this effect has happened.
Have your parents and Raju’s parents spoken among themselves about your marriage?No. My mother and his mother have not met as yet.
When the entire Tamil film industry participated in the funeral of Sivaji, you were missing. Why was it you were missing?When I came to know of his death, I was in Hyderabad in a shooting. The circumstances did not permit the cancellation of the shooting immediately, to enable me to attend his funeral. And when I returned to Chennai, the funeral ceremonies were over by that time.
It was not only you. No actress from Mumbai in general, participated in the funeral.I do not about others. I respect him very much. I have acted in the film ‘Once more’ with him and I am proud of it. Please understand my situation. I could not attend the funeral because I was in a film shooting which could not be cancelled. This becomes an issue only if I was in Chennai and did not attend.
There have been scores of negative information about you for the past three months. What do you wish to say about them?That I am in love with Raju is an old news. But I was very much affected by the one that said that I am afflicted with some disease. Just think of it. How will you all be affected if your own sister or wife is rumoured about in this manner? I am not suffering from any disease and I did not undergo treatment for anything whatsoever.
Then what could be the reason for the rumour mill to run so? Do you think that this may be the handiwork of managers who were working for you till recently?May be. I am led to believe that. See, I appoint a manager only to look after my call sheet and receivables. I sent them out because they did not perform it properly. May be they were provoked by that and are spreading such rumours. But it would have been better if the press people checked them with me before publishing them.
But you are not accessible for us to do any verification…I have taken necessary action to see that it doesn’t happen any more. Please check such items with me before publication.
The role you have played in 12B has neither been considerable nor impressive…That was the role given to me in the movie.
There was an announcement that you are acting in ‘Three Roses’. But later you were not in the movie. What happened?I did not like the story. They are basing the movie on the English film, ‘Charlie Angel’. In the first instance, I was not impressed with the English movie itself. That’s the only reason for my not acting in ‘Three Roses’.
Are you playing the role of a liberation tiger in ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’, directed and produced by Mani Ratnam?No I am not. I am playing the role of a TV newsreader. Nandita Das is playing that role.
What are the other movies in which you are acting now?‘I Love You daa.’ This is a movie about cricket match fixing. Then, ‘Paarthaale Paravasam’ by K. Balachander, Pammal K. Sambandham with Kamal, ‘Tamil’ with Prashanth, ‘Udhaya’ with Vijay, and another with Mohanlal - a Nassar movie.
Rehman is scoring music for ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’, ‘Paarthaale Paravasam’ and ‘Udhaya’. The delay is due to the time that the music director takes. And then naturally some dates get postponed. In effect, it is Simran who becomes responsible for any delay and is blamed of bounced call sheets.
am acting in Telugu with Chiranjeevi, in ‘Daddy’ and another with Balakrishna. I am acting in the Hindi remake of ‘Thulladha manaum thullum’. Apart from all this, I will be doing an English movie directed by Dura Savar. It is about the deva dasis who lived in 1930s. The film will be shot in Thanjavur.
What is the problem with your sister Monal? You are living in separate houses…There is absolutely no problem. She is living alone because she wants to. It is her liking. There is no problem in our family. Me, my sisters (apart from Monal there is another sister by name Jothi, who will soon make her entry into filmdom) and my brother Sumith are all amiable, loving and affectionate.
Simran finished the press meet and started for her shooting in New Zealand. (Of course, she did not pick up any quarrel in the airport!) She conveyed her best wishes for Deepavali to all her fans.
(2000)
--TamilmaganTr. By Hari Krishnan

Awards are secondary for me -Vikram

Vikram belongs to that cadre of actors to whom dedication comes first before the self and would go to any extent to play it realistically. He reduced his weight by 16 Kgs for the sake of ‘Sethu’ and now he is playing the role of a sight-impaired for ‘Kasi.’ We met Vikram in the sets of ‘Kasi.’
‘When I saw the Malayalam movie, ‘Vasanthiyum, Latchumiyum pinna naanum,’ I was thrilled,’ said Vikram, ‘and decided that moment that I should play the role which Kalabhavan Mani did in that movie. He had played the role of a sight-impaired so impressively well. But it was not easy for me to keep the pupil of my up under the eyelid, as did Kalabhavan Mani. Then I thought ‘when it was possible for Mani, why not me?’ and trained myself regularly with single-minded devotion, daily.’
‘It was only after I could do it convincingly well that I approached director Vinayan and told him that I would play the role in the Tamil version of the movie.’ But Vinayan came out with another idea. He said that there was no need for me to go through such a difficult job. I can better wear contact lens, specially available for the purpose and play the role. I could not accept this. That would affect a realistic portrayal.’
‘And then when the shooting started, I faced difficulty of another kind. If I concentrated on dialogue delivery, the pupil of the eye would not remain in place; and if I concentrated on that, I would lose out on dialogue.’ (Laughs)
‘We therefore stopped with the shooting of first scene. Then I underwent an intense self-training. I could do it only with regular and continued training. It was very painful initially. But when I got used to it and did it without much effort, half the movie was shot already. May be, if I am asked to play a second innings now, I won’t find it that difficult!’
‘Since you have played the role of a visually-handicapped there is no doubt that you will earn the sympathy of the audience,’ we told him and asked, ‘But the people want action heroes. Do you think that the role of a visually impaired would fulfil their expectations convincingly?’
‘Sure. For certain. This is a real good role. But ‘Kasi’ would be a real hero, throughout the movie.’
You reduced your weight for ‘Sethu’ and now you have gone through a really difficult training - that too with respect to your eyes. What makes you take such kind of risks?’ we asked him.
‘It is my yearning for the applause from my audience,’ said Vikram. ‘I was told when acting for ‘Kasi’ that there was no use in putting in extra efforts and overstraining for the movie, because Kalabhavan Mani had already received a national award for playing the role. Moreover, this was only a remake. A remake doesn’t stand a chance of getting any award.’
‘As far as I am concerned, I would be happy if I am the recipient of an award. But it is more important for me to win the approval of my audience. More over, I have lost the Best Actor award for my performance in Sethu. I therefore do not attach much importance to it now.’
‘How did you reduce 16 Kgs for Sethu?’
Simple. I stopped eating. I survived on fruit juice and nothing else. My blood pressure dropped and doctors warned me about low-pressure. I did not pay any heed to that. I was firm till the end of the movie.’
‘There was an English movie by name Cast Away. Its hero would reach an uninhabited island. He would suffer without food and would become skinny. They adopted scientific methods. He consulted a doctor and reduced his intake as advised by him and reduced 8 kgs for the movie. But the method that I adopted was very ‘local’. Just stop eating. That’s all. I was amply rewarded for my efforts. The press paid rich tributes. ‘Sethu’ was called the ‘movie of the century.’ That’s enough for me!
TamilmaganTr. by Hari Krishnan

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