CYNOSURE OF ALL EYES-NAYANTHARA

Cynosure of all eyes


South Indian actress Nayanthara is in the news for more reasons than one, reports KK Moidu

Top star of South Indian films Nayanthara's ability to stay in the news is on display again. As always she did not bargain for this one either. Three of the actress's Tamil movies — Vallavan, Thalaimagan and Ee — are lined up for release during Diwali. No other heroine has had three movie releases on the same day.
Her career in South Indian films has been equally trail-blazing. Born Diana Kurian, Nayanthara is the daughter of Kurian Kodiyattu and Omana of Thiruvalla. Before her foray into films she was adjudged Kerala's best model in 2002. She completed her BA in English Literature and was doing her CA, when director Sathyan Anthikkad offered her a role in Manassinakkre . The film, which was released in 2003 also happened to be yesteryears' heroine Sheela's comeback film. Manassinakkare was a big box office success with Jayaram as the hero. Nayanthara gave an outstanding performance and the success of the movie made the industry notice her.
The new actress's versatility and beauty captivated the hearts of Malayalam film buffs. What followed, however, were two flop films with superstar Mohanlal — Vismayathumbathu, directed by Fazil, and Natturajavu., directed by Shaji Kailas.
However, Nayanthara was not destined to stay a flop heroine. Before long lady luck smiled on her and Tamil film director Hari saw her photograph in a magazine. The director offered her a chance to act with senior Tamil actor Sarath Kumar in Ayya under the K. Balachander banner. Initially she was cast mainly opposite senior actors. In her second Tamil film, Chandramukhi, Tamil superstar Rajnikant was her hero. Though hers was not the lead role in Chandramukhi, professionally she learnt a lot from a stalwart like Rajnikant and soon she bacame a name to reckon with in Kollywood.
After the success of Ayya and Chandramukhi she did films with younger heroes like Surya (Ghajini and Sivakasi) , Vijay (Kalvanin Kathalai ) and with actor-director SJ Surya. After her successes in Tamil films, like other Malayalam heroines, Nayanthara too began focussing on Tamil films. However, she managed to find enough time to do two Malayalam films — Thaskaraveeran and Rappkal with superstar Mammooty. Her role in Rappakal was that of a non-glamorous housemaid and in Thaskaraveeran she had a slightly more glamorous role.
Nayanthara is a versatile actress. Although she played homely characters in her Tamil and Malayalam debut films, she subsequently switched over to glamorous roles. Her argument is that when she is playing a modern character she can't place limits on the extent of glamour in her films. She has realised that to succeed in Tamil and Telugu films she will have to do glamorous roles and cannot continue to play the village belle as she did in the Malayalam industry.
Nayanthara has thus transformed herself into a glamour queen and made her debut in Telugu with Lakshmi, in which Venkatesh is her leading man. In Suresh Productions' next film too this pair has been repeated. Nayanthara has many other offers from Telugu filmmakers. Her upcoming projects in Telugu include a movie with Nagarjuna, where she plays a multi-dimensional role with solid scope for histrionics. Another offer from Telugu is with Prabhas for the remake of the Kannada hit Jogi. The movie will be directed by Vinayak.
After the success of her Telugu movies Lakshmi and Gajini she has been flooded with coveted roles. She is very lucky because upcoming actors rarely get such good offers. Like Tamil and Malayalam in Telugu too she has been cast opposite senior heroes, who hold her in high esteem. Because of her good breaks in Tamil and Telugu she has several hits to her credit.
Recently she walked out of veteran Malayalam film director Joshi's Janmam, which has Suresh Gopi and Gopika in the lead roles. While one version has it that Nayanthara found the role too insignificant for her present stature in the industry, another said the actress was piqued by the fact that the director was not present on the sets of Janman despite the fact that she had taken the trouble to take time off from her busy schedule to report for the shooting. An unapologetic Joshi is said to have completed a song sequence with another actress, Sada.
Nayanthara's popularity in Kollywood and Tollywood is giving a tough time to other heroines like Trisha, Asin and Charmy. Her busy schedule leaves her with very little time to even do films with veterans like Kamal Hassan in spite of her ambition to do a film with him. Lack of dates made her turn down Kamal's Dasavatharam. She also turned down an offer to act in Mohanlal starrer Keerthichakra. According to reports the actress is put off by the low remuneration in Malayalam films, whereas even for an item number in Tamil films, Nayanthara earned Rs 1 million at the beginning of her career. Today in Tamil and Telugu films she is paid Rs 4 to 6 million per film as against a paltry Rs 500,000 or 600,000 for a Malayalam film.
In each of her three Diwali Tamil releases, Ee, Thalaimagan and Vallavan, Nayanthara plays a different character. In Ee she plays a bar dancer from Mumbai, who is in love with a gangster,. Eswaran, portrayed by Jeeva.
In Vallavan she is a teacher with Simbu as her leading man. Because of the rumours about a budding romance between Nayantara and Simbu, the audience is eagerly awaitingVallavan..
Thalaimagan will see her portraying a journalist.with Sharath Kumar as the hero. Thalaimagan is Sharath Kumar's 100th film.
Nayanthara doesn't do anything with an eye on publicity but whatever she does ultimately becomes news. Either it is about her rejecting an offer to do an item number in a Chiranjeevi starrer in Telugu, Stalin, or her lip lock with Silambarsan inVallavan. Now the latest is going to be her three movie releases on the same day.