Thursday, August 25, 2011
Telling the time with Captain
CHENNAI: Keychains, photographs, rings and t-shirts are passe. The latest item on the stands is wristwatches. The stall at the DMDK headquarters in Koyambedu now sells watches with pictures of party chief Vijayakanth and his wife Premalatha on the dial.
"The watches are a new addition to the existing memorabilia of flags, badges, reflectors and caps. We don't sell much in the city. Sales are huge when the cadres come for functions from places like Vellore and Tiruvannamalai," says Kannan, the shopkeeper, as he shows off the watches which come with either a leather strap or a gold link chain. Kannan says he has already sold a couple of watches costing between Rs 150 and Rs 650 since he took charge two weeks ago.
"Only rich cadres can afford to buy watches. Others will go for small items like badges and reflectors," says Selvaganapathi, a DMDK cadre from Avadi, who is saving up to buy a watch. "It'll be something special to have a watch with Captain's face on it."
"The watches are a new addition to the existing memorabilia of flags, badges, reflectors and caps. We don't sell much in the city. Sales are huge when the cadres come for functions from places like Vellore and Tiruvannamalai," says Kannan, the shopkeeper, as he shows off the watches which come with either a leather strap or a gold link chain. Kannan says he has already sold a couple of watches costing between Rs 150 and Rs 650 since he took charge two weeks ago.
"Only rich cadres can afford to buy watches. Others will go for small items like badges and reflectors," says Selvaganapathi, a DMDK cadre from Avadi, who is saving up to buy a watch. "It'll be something special to have a watch with Captain's face on it."
Vijaykanth's son the new hero
DMDK president and Tamilnadu opposition leader Vijaykanth's younger son Shanmuga Pandian is all set to make his onscreen debut soon.
Shanmuga has completed his XII Standard and is taking dance classes and martial arts training now.
Vijaykanth's wife Premalatha was busy looking for a apt script for her son's debut. Now the latest news is is that Vijayakanth was highly impressed with a comedy entertainer narrated by director Bhoopathy Pandian.
There are reports that the Vijayakanth's son may soon start shooting for Bhoopathy Pandian.
Tamil Nadu calls for sanctions against Sri Lanka
Chennai, June 8 (IANS) The Tamil Nadu assembly Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging the Indian government to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka and approach the United Nations to declare those responsible for the "genocide" in the island country as war criminals.
The resolution said India and other countries should impose sanctions to force the Sri Lankan government to rehabilitate the internally displaced people urgently.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said Tamils in Sri Lanka were being treated as second grade citizens.
She said that instead of providing a political settlement, the Sri Lankan government killed innocent people by bombing residential areas and hospitals.
Jayalalithaa said India, along with other nations, should impose economic sanctions so that the Tamils living in rehabilitation camps can go back to their homes and live with the same political rights being enjoyed by the Sinhalese.
In her reply to the debate on the resolution, Jayalalithaa said that protesting against the discrimination, the Sri Lankan Tamils have been demanding "self rule", or a separate Tamil Eelam, since the 1980s.
She said that killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka reached its zenith with the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1991 in Tamil Nadu.
She said it was on her insistence that the Indian government had banned LTTE in 1992 and it was her government in 2002 that passed a resolution urging the central government to demand extradition of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran to face trial in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Jayalalithaa said the situation in Sri Lanka changed with Mahinda Rajapakse becoming the president in 2005.
Citing news reports about the Indian Army training around 100 Sri Lankan Army personnel in Haryana and India supplying sophisticated arms to the country, Jayalalithaa said the Sri Lankan government started attacking Tamils in 2008-end and the beginning of 2009.
She accused the DMK of betraying the interests of Sri Lankan Tamils by staging several dramas instead of exerting pressure on the central government to ensure ceasefire in the island by threatening to withdraw its support.
The DMK members, while extending their support to the resolution, objected to the comments by Leader of Opposition and DMDK founder A. Vijayakanth.
Senior DMK leader Duraimurugan sought the chair's permission to counter Vijayakanth, which was denied, leading to a walkout by the party.
The resolution said India and other countries should impose sanctions to force the Sri Lankan government to rehabilitate the internally displaced people urgently.
Moving the resolution, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said Tamils in Sri Lanka were being treated as second grade citizens.
She said that instead of providing a political settlement, the Sri Lankan government killed innocent people by bombing residential areas and hospitals.
Jayalalithaa said India, along with other nations, should impose economic sanctions so that the Tamils living in rehabilitation camps can go back to their homes and live with the same political rights being enjoyed by the Sinhalese.
In her reply to the debate on the resolution, Jayalalithaa said that protesting against the discrimination, the Sri Lankan Tamils have been demanding "self rule", or a separate Tamil Eelam, since the 1980s.
She said that killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka reached its zenith with the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1991 in Tamil Nadu.
She said it was on her insistence that the Indian government had banned LTTE in 1992 and it was her government in 2002 that passed a resolution urging the central government to demand extradition of LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran to face trial in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Jayalalithaa said the situation in Sri Lanka changed with Mahinda Rajapakse becoming the president in 2005.
Citing news reports about the Indian Army training around 100 Sri Lankan Army personnel in Haryana and India supplying sophisticated arms to the country, Jayalalithaa said the Sri Lankan government started attacking Tamils in 2008-end and the beginning of 2009.
She accused the DMK of betraying the interests of Sri Lankan Tamils by staging several dramas instead of exerting pressure on the central government to ensure ceasefire in the island by threatening to withdraw its support.
The DMK members, while extending their support to the resolution, objected to the comments by Leader of Opposition and DMDK founder A. Vijayakanth.
Senior DMK leader Duraimurugan sought the chair's permission to counter Vijayakanth, which was denied, leading to a walkout by the party.
Vadivelu targets Rajinikanth!
After campaigning for the DMK during the recent elections to Tamil Nadu assembly, Vadivelu had become a national phenomenon.
The English news channels has made him out to be the 'real hero' of DMK campaign machinery as he was able to demolish the credibility of 'Captain' Vijaykanth .
Now after meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today (April 29) morning, he has taken on Superstar Rajinikanth.
The buzz is that initially Vadivelu was offered a role in Rajinikanth's KS Ravikumar directed Rana, but at the last minute he was dropped.
It seems he was replaced by Ganjakarupu, which irked the senior comedian.
So when a reporter asked Vadivelu about him being removed from Rajinikanth's film, the comedian shot back: "I just don't care,whether it is Rana or Gana! Everything will change once the results
are out on May 13 and Kalaingar comes back as the CM."
‘Political’ channels on EC radar
The Election Commission is considering new guidelines to regulate TV news channels run by persons affiliated to political parties during elections in a bid to check malpractices. The decision was taken after complaints of misuse of news channels to woo voters was reported from Tamil Nadu
and Kerala, where all major parties run a TV channel.
Some of the measures being considered is to divide the cost of running these channels in election expenditure of all candidates of the party supported by the channel. In case, individual candidates are promoted, the cost of that campaign will be automatically added to the expenditure of that candidate.
According to officials, the job of monitoring the new guidelines will be of district-level electronic and print media monitoring committee, which the EC set up during elections. The committee will have powers to issue notices to TV channels violating the new guidelines.
Even though I&B ministry guidelines prohibit a party to run a TV news channel there is no ban on persons with political affiliations to run them.
Therefore all news channels said to be of political parties are owned by individuals.
For instance, Tamil Nadu, which has the maximum number of such channels including Kalaignar TV, owned by DMK chief K Karunanidhi’s family members and Jaya TV is owned by Jayalalithaa herself, not by their respective political parties. Captain TV is owned by actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth besides Mega TV. Congress also joined the bandwagon with the launch of Vasanth channel.
In Kerala, the CPM-backed Malayalam Communications have several channels while Congressmen have their Jaihind channel. MK Muneer of Muslim League recently started India Vision.
In Andhra, the late YSR’s son Jaganmohan Reddy owns Sakshi TV and newspaper while Reddy brothers of Karnataka also own a news channel.
“News channels owned by politicians are a new tool to manipulate electoral system....It is paid news of another kind,” a senior EC official said.
Sarath Kumar trashes rumour
The industry folks, especially the producers, were jumping with joy when the rumours of Nadigar Sangham launching a TV channel spread like wildfire.
The buzz was that Sarath Kumar, the current president of Nadigar Sangham and Vijayakanth, the opposition leader in the state assembly and former president of Nadigar Sangham, had met and discussed the possibility of launching a new television channel to help Tamil film producers.
It was also reported that Nadigar Sangham would buy the satellite rights of all films, irrespective of whether they were big or small, at a fixed rate. Another option was of sharing the revenue after airing the said movie.
In the present scenario, movie audiences are very smart and only films with good content run, while the rest are rejected.
The only avenue for producers to retrieve their money is through FMS and satellite rights. The latter, in particular, does help them recover a major chunk of their investment. With a mere handful of big TV channels currently buying only big flicks, this news seemed to come as a boon to small and medium film producers.
Sadly their joy was short-lived. When Sarath Kumar was contacted by DC he dismissed the rumours, saying that such a venture would be a Himalayan task for Nadigar Sangham.
“It is not an easy task to start a TV channel. Given the present situation, Nadigar Sangham does not have any such agenda,” he said firmly. And that’s where things stand for now.
vijaykanth latest news
Vijaykant stays away from AIADMK Front's joint rally
Coimbatore | Wednesday, Apr 6 2011 IST
Actor-politician Vijayakanth was conspicuous by his absence as the opposition AIADMK organised a joint rally with the leaders of its allies, seeking to dispel the ruling DMK's criticism that leaders of its alliance parties can never share a dais.
The reports suggested that Mr Vijayakanth would share the dais with Ms Jayalalithaa and silence the DMK's criticism. But the actor did not turn up for the rally.
Though the AIADMK has not made any official announcement about the joint rally, but there were great expectations among cadres of the two parties that the actor would come for the rally and share the dais with Jaya. But they were disappointed lot.
Barring Mr Vijayakanth, leaders of all the allies, including CPI(M) National Secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leaders A B Bardhan, D Raja, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi Jawaharulla, Puthiya Tamizhagam founder-leader K Krishnasamy, All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi leader actor Sarathkumar and All India Moovendar Munnetra Kazhagam leader N Sethuraman were present.
However, Mr Vijayakanth, who deputed party Presidium Chairman and former AIADMK Miniser Panruti S Ramachandran, chose to campaign for the front in Nagapattinam district, the eastern part of the state.
After deciding to forge alliance with the AIADMK for the April 13 Assembly elections, Mr Vijayakanth had met Ms Jayalalithaa only once at her Poes Garden Residence to sign the seat sharing agreement after AIADMK allotted 41 seats.
Later, the DMDK leaders, dissatisfied with the allocation of seats, had prolonged talks with Ms Jayalalithaa, but Mr Vijayakanth kept away.
When all the alliance party leaders met Ms Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence and signed the agreements, after the seats were identified, Mr Vijayakanth did not turn up. Instead, the papers were sent to him for his signature.
Local DMDK leaders initially said Mr Vijayakanth would change his tour programme and take part in the rally, but this morning, ruled out his presence, stating that the party would be represented by Mr Ramachandran.
His alleged thrashing of a party candidate in full public glare has created a flutter and rattled even his admirers. The incident, repeatedly telecast on channels with pro-DMK leanings, happened at Dharmapuri on Tuesday. Right from the Sun TV network to Karunanidhi's family-owned Kalaignar TV and the PMK founder Ramadoss' Makkal TV aired the visuals the whole day. Well, the DMK camp appeared to have been waiting for 'Captain', as the actor is called by his supporters, to commit the faux pas.
Thus far there is no regret from the actor and the DMDK expectedly swung into his defence saying he was irritated at the repeated failure of the public address system and had only chided the operator. But the damage has already been done as the visuals found its way to the cyberspace. The visuals showed Vijaykant thrashing his party's candidate for Dharmapuri constituency, A Bhaskaran, for correcting him. For, the actor is being heard seeking votes for a non-existent Pandiyan. Clearly, he seems to have got wrong the name of the nominee of his own party. It all happened atop the campaign vehicle of the actor, who was accompanied by the candidate. Poor Bhaskaran had reportedly tried to correct his party boss, fearing that the voters would be left confused as to whether the DMDK had replaced its candidate. It had happened in a few other places after the party had released the list.
The matinee idol had launched the DMDK only to make political capital out of his huge fan following. But, he had been criticised as a drunkard. In an uncharitable remark, Jayalalithaa had termed him an alcoholic to which he countered asking whether the AIADMK leader had filled his cup. That has returned to haunt him as he joined the Jayalalithaa bandwagon now. This has come in handy for his bete noire and comedian Vadivelu, who is now a star campaigner for the DMK. If this was not enough, Vijaykant's stinging criticism of the PMK as "a casteist outfit which switches alliances like a monkey jumping on to trees" has backfired. The PMK leader has questioned the actor aligning with Jayalalithaa after claiming all these days that he would not 'pledge' his self respect by joining any front for a few seats.
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