ShowBiz

Chennai, Sep 23 (IANS) Director Vignesh Shivan, who seems to have been thoroughly impressed by the surprise birthday party his wife actress Nayanthara recently threw, has now put out an emotional post, thanking her for the way she loved him.

Taking to Instagram and posting pictures of his birthday celebrations that happened in Dubai last week, Vignesh Shivan wrote," It's my eighth birthday with you my thangamey #Nayanthara! You have made every birthday extra special than the previous one !

"Buta. This one was too emotional! Thank you for being the lover you are! You know what makes me the happiest and you gave me exactly that!

"To more years of love, happiness and peace! Thank you. Love you and the way you love me, more and more !!"

This is the second post that Vignesh Shivan is putting out about his birthday celebrations this year.

Earlier, he had said, "A birthday filled with pure love from a loving family! Awesome surprise by my wife, my thangam -- a dreamy birthday below Burj Khalifa with all my lovely people with me !

"Can't get better and more special than this! Always thanking God for all the lovely moments he gives me in this blessed life!"

--IANS
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Los Angeles, Sep 23 (IANS) Former 'Riverdale' and 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' actor Ryan Grantham has been sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole for 14 years for killing his mother.

The by-the-book second-degree murder punishment was handed down by British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Kathleen Ker on September 21 in Vancouver, reports 'Deadline'.

With the sentence already a forgone conclusion over the laws of the Canadian province, the only real wild card was how long the guilty pleading Grantham would have to wait before the currently 24-year-old could apply for parole.

The Leo Awards nominated Grantham turned himself to police soon after shooting his 64-year-old mother Barbara Waite in the back of the head on March 31, 2020, in the family's Squamish home, just north of Vancouver.

A second-degree murder charge in B.C. comes with no parole eligibility of between 10 and 25 years.

In that context, prosecutors had recommended in a sentencing hearing earlier this year that Grantham receive a parole ineligibility up to 18 years. The former actor's legal team had suggested 12 years as a fair consequence. Clearly Justice Ker met them in the middle in her ruling this week.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, Grantham has been in custody for the past two and a half years, law enforcement officials in Vancouver confirmed to 'Deadline'.

Participating in a mental health program since his arrest, Grantham is in the process of being readied for transfer to a more permanent facility, sources say.

With around 30 credits on his resume, Grantham noticeably played Jeffrey Augustine on the fourth season of the soapy 'Riverdale' in 2019.

While appearing briefly, the character had a pivotal role in the Archie comics-based show. It was Jeffrey Augustine who killed the late Luke Perry portrayed Fred Andrews on the series in a hit and run that changed almost everything on the show.

Starting his career back in 2007, Grantham also appeared in the 2010 movie 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid', as well as stints on Supernatural, 'iZombie' and in 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'.

It later was revealed in court that after the murder of his mother, Grantham took video of the body and confessed to the killing on-camera.

A day later, after carefully arranging the body in a semi-religious scene, Grantham hit the road. With ever changing intent, he at one point was going to try to kill Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, as he also wrote in a journal entered as evidence.

Grantham also considered committing a mass shooting at Vancouver's Simon Fraser University or on the iconic Lions Gate Bridge.

Thankfully, none of that came to pass and Grantham instead went to East Vancouver cop shop and surrendered.

"I killed my mother," he is reported to have bluntly declared to police at the front desk of the station.

Back in March of this year, the multiple credit actor expressed sorrow at what he had done. "In the face of something so horrible, saying sorry seems so pointless," Grantham told the Vancouver court and Justice Ker, reading from a sheet of paper.

"But from every fiber of my being, I am sorry."

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 22 (IANS) 'Yeh Hai Mohabbatein' actress Anupama Solanki will soon be seen playing the negative lead in the show 'Bindiya Sarkar'.

Bagging the role has been quite a process for Anupama.

Talking about the same, Anupama says: "For the last two months, I have been taking look tests for 'Bindiya Sarkar', but somehow they didn't work. Finally after a lot of hard work, I have now got this powerful role. I was not expecting this character, but all of a sudden I got a call from Jay Mehta Production who called me for a look test and then after a few days, I was locked in for this role."

She adds: "This character is very challenging compared to my earlier shows because this is an unmarried lady who has some spiritual power. She is also very cunning and smart.

"I am very lucky as I always end up getting challenging characters. I am sure people will love this character because it is very out of the box."

Talking about her look, Anupama says, "My look will remind people of the old horror movie 'Jaani Dushman'."

The actress says that she was always intrigued by the title 'Bindiya Sarkar'.

"The title is very unique and I have never heard this type of a title before. I am excited to meet the rest of the cast. I am sharing the screen with Neelu Vaghela mam and Amit Behl sir. They are very senior actors and I am happy to get an opportunity to learn from them," she says.

Anupama played a positive role in the show 'Maddam Sir'.

"Honestly, I always enjoy playing positive characters because I am actually like that. I am sensitive, bubbly and humble, so if you get the character the way you are, it becomes easy. But negative characters are very challenging and tough," she says.

"There is no guarantee that a show will succeed, but I have faith in God and my hard work. Our job is to give the best shot and the rest is left to destiny," she concludes.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 22 (IANS) The poster of 'Christopher' directed by B. Unnikrishnan and starring Mammootty as the titular character is out.

In the poster, Mammootty could be seen in the role of a police officer with the caption, "For Him, Justice is an Obsession..."

The tag line of the film is 'Biography of a Vigilant Cop'.

The film is produced by RD Illuminations. Udayakrishna, who has scripted many hits, has written the film which also has three leading ladies in Sneha, Amala Paul and Aishwarya Lakshmi.

Another highlight of the movie is south Indian actor Vinay Rai playing an important role. Shine Tom Chacko, Dileesh Pothan, Siddique, Jinu Abraham, Vneeta Koshi, Vasanthi, and thirty-five newcomers are playing various characters in the film. The shooting is in progress in Ernakulam, Pooyamkutty and Vandiperiyar.

The cinematography is by Faiz Siddique, who directed 'Operation Jawa' in the past, and the music is being composed by Justin Varghese.

--IANS
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Hyderabad, Sep 22 (IANS) Actress Sonal Chauhan is super excited about sharing screen space with Tollywood star Nagarjuna in his forthcoming power packed action-thriller 'The Ghost'.

Sonal took to her social media profile and shared a Behind The Scenes (BTS) video featuring herself and Nagarjuna undergoing weapons' training.

The BTS video has interesting visuals of them prepping for the action scenes and holding some heavy guns, which definitely piques our interest.

Recently, Sonal had got injured on the sets but was undeterred. The actress had a fracture during her MMA training and was told to avoid any training/action scenes for a couple of weeks but despite that, she continued shooting.

'The Ghost', is written and directed by Praveen Sattaru. The film also stars Gul Panag, Anikha Surendran, Manish Chaudhari, Ravi Varma and Srikanth Iyengar. The film is slated to release on October 5, 2022.

Apart from 'The Ghost', Sonal Chauhan is also busy with yet another massive project, 'Adipurush', the bilingual Hindu mythological film based on the epic Ramayana, by Om Raut and produced by T-Series Films and Retrophiles.

The film also stars Prabhas as Raghava, Kriti Sanon, and Saif Ali Khan in the lead roles. The film is scheduled to be theatrically released on January 12, 2023.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 22 (IANS) The National-Award winning superstar Dhanush's big-budget period film 'Captain Miller' to be directed by Arun Matheswaran has been launched grandly with a pooja ceremony.

Versatile actor Sundeep Kishan, who is playing a significant role, and the gorgeous Priyanka Mohan who will be seen opposite Dhanush also participated in the event.

'Captain Miller' had earlier grabbed attention with its spectacular first-look motion poster. The team is setting high expectations, before starting the project, with massive announcements. The movie also features many noted actors in important roles.

The star cast combination, 'Captain Miller' will have the regional flavour that appeals to the taste of Telugu audiences as well. This is going to be the biggest budgeted film in Dhanush's career.

The period drama film set against the backdrop of the 1930s-40s is presented by T.G. Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films and produced by Sendhil Thyagarajan and Arjun Thyagarajan. The film is co-produced by G. Saravanan and Sai Siddharth.

Madhan Karky, who worked for films like Baahubali franchise, RRR, and Pushpa, has penned dialogues for the Tamil version of the movie.

The other technicians include G.V. Prakash Kumar scoring music, Shreyaas Krishna handling cinematography, Nagooran taking care of editing, wherein T. Ramalingam is the art director.

'Captain Miller' will be released simultaneously in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 22 (IANS) 'Uttaran' actor Chaitannya Choudhry, who is making his OTT debut with the show 'Hush Hush', said that he wanted to come on board as soon as he heard about the cast including Juhi Chawla, Soha Ali Khan, Shahana Goswami, Kritika Kamra, Karishma Tanna and Ayesha Jhulka.

Chaitanya revealed it was great working with each one of them. "They are stunning, all of them, who wouldn't love working with them. And Soha is simply amazing. She made me feel so comfortable during the shoot, really grateful to have had her as my co-star for this series."

Chaitanya has done several TV shows 'Kahiin To Hoga', 'Dil Hi To Hai', 'Dream Girl', 'Yeh Hai Mohabbatein' and many more.

The series was shot during the pandemic. Talking about his experience of the same, the actor added: "Those were really tough times and a new experience for all of us as a team. The second wave immensely impacted the second schedule."

On how he prepared himself for the show, he said: "After reading the whole script many times, I tried to understand my place in the whole plot and made detailed notes for my character. Subsequent script readings and my own rehearsals really helped me perform my scenes."

Created by filmmaker Tanuja Chandra, the seven-episode thriller is a story of a set of women whose lives take a drastic change when a secret from their past comes in front of them. It streams on Amazon Prime Video.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 22 (IANS) Bollywood actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood will feature in a Haryanvi music album for the first time.

He will be in the music album of famous Haryanvi music producer Rao Inderjeet Singh, who is also founder and CEO of the music platform Gem Tunes.

Speaking on the occasion, Rao Inderjeet Singh said, "We now have vast collections of songs in various regional languages in our kitty and the music label is now a one stop destination for million of music lovers." He further said "soon we will also be producing and acquiring rights of Bollywood and Tollywood songs."

He then stated "Bollywood and Tollywood songs have one of the largest fan base and hence we are soon planning to foray in these music markets too."

Since its launch in 2020, 'Gem Tunes' in just two years has captured hearts of music lovers and now it has collection of more than 20,000 songs in 10 regional languages.

--IANS
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Los Angeles, Sep 22 (IANS) Rapper Doja Cat has revealed that she's doing an 'R&B album' without rap at all.

"I'm doing an R&B album," the 26-year-old, whose real name is Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, declared on Twitter, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"Straight R&B and no rap at all."

The post met with positive feedback.

"Not even gon lie, I'm actually excited to hear what this gon sound like. Doja get a lot of hate but she's talented frfr," one person said.

Rapper OT Genesis, meanwhile, asked for collaboration by writing, "Put me on there."

Doja Cat might have changed her mind about how her next project will be.

Back in May, she claimed her upcoming record will be "predominantly rap."

She told Elle, "There's some really cool stuff that I got sent from friends. They're all working on beats, and I'm giving them notes and they know what I want, so I'm excited."

Meanwhile, in a recent interview with CR Fashion Book, she said her next album is inspired by rave culture.

"We just have so many ideas and making those ideas consistent is the challenge right now," she shared. "I can't really tell much. I just know there's a lot going on."

"I'm very into this '90s German rave kind of vibe right now and it's really fun," the musician elaborated further.

"I know that's kind of the trend at the moment but I loved that stuff as a kid and now that I can express it (obviously, I couldn't buzz my head and wear a furry bra and have a belly button piercing back then), I'm sort of embracing that. That's kind of a hint to the album. Rave culture, not house."

Doja's latest album is 'Planet Her', which came out in June last year. With four tracks off the record, she successfully bowed at the top spot on the Billboard Artist 100 chart to become the top musical act in the US for the first time.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 21 (IANS) Ajith Kumar's upcoming action thriller, which is being directed by H. Vinoth and was tentatively called AK61, has been titled 'Thunivu', its makers announced on Wednesday.

The first look poster of the film, which also had the title of the film on it, has Ajith relaxing on a chair with a semi-automatic weapon in his hand. The title has the tagline, 'No Guts, No Glory'.

The film, which is a Boney Kapoor production (just like 'Valimai', another Ajith Kumar-Vinoth collaboration), has a plot that revolves around a bank heist.

Interestingly, the unit had erected a giant set resembling Chennai's popular landmark Mount Road in Hyderabad where certain important scenes of the film were shot in its previous schedules. Just one more schedule of shooting is left.

After the last schedule, Ajith is expected to move on to his next project, which is to be directed by Vignesh Shivan.

--IANS
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