Here’s a recap of the significant stories in entertainment across Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada films, and sometimes the odd television series as well.
Pettaikaali explores the rich culture around the 1000-year-old bull-taming Tamil festival known as Jallikattu or Manju Virattu. The series follows the journey of individuals who fight to win the village sport. As the festival inches closer, owners of different bulls train them and get ready for the event aiming to outdo one another. The trailer of Pettaikaali promises to explore the power struggle and ego fights associated with Jallikattu.
Directed by La Rajkumar, the webseries stars Kalaiyarasan, Kishore, and Sheela Rajkumar. The series has music by Santhosh Narayanan and cinematography by Velraj.
Ammu starring Aishwarya Lekshmi is part of Amazon Prime Video’s festive lineup of Great Indian Festival 2022. The film takes us through the journey of Aishwarya Lekshmi’s Ammu, who marries Ravi (Naveen Chandra), a police officer. She tries to manage her marriage life and make beautiful memories. But one day, Ravi slaps her and her life is turned upside down. While she tries to cover up for his behavior initially, she eventually decides that enough is enough. What happens when a woman decides to fight back?
Filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj is the creative producer of Ammu. Directed by Charukesh Sekar, the film stars Aishwarya Lekshmi, Naveen Chandra and Bobby Simha. It is produced by Kalyan Subramaniam and Kaarthekeyen Santhanam.
Director Vysakh and Mohanlal reunite for Monster after the action thriller Pulimurugan (2016). Monster is a thriller that follows a seemingly fake investigation — the disappearance of a woman's husband and their child. While the police begin suspecting the woman herself, she turns their focus on to Lucky Singh, a man with a beard, played by Mohanlal. And he immediately comes across as a person who is hungry for revenge. Who is Lucky Singh and what does he want?
Monster is written by Uday Krishna and directed by Vysakh.
The trailer of Sivakarthikeyan's Prince, which begins with clippings of caste and religion based violence, soon takes a comical turn when Sathyaraj enters the screen. Sivakarthikeyan plays Arjun, a school teacher who uses unorthodox methods to help students. He falls in love with a British woman (played by Maria) who teaches physics in the same school. But the entire village is against him as he loves a foreigner.
Helmed by Anudeep KV, the story is co-written by Mohan Sato. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan, Maria Riaboshapka and Sathyaraj in prominent roles. The dialogues are penned by Prabhakaran and Anand Narayanan. The Thaman S musical is slated to hit the theatres this Diwali on October 21.
Documenting the natural wonders of Karnataka, Gandhada Gudi (GG) features late actor Puneeth Rajkumar and filmmaker and wildlife photographer Amoghavarsha setting off on a journey to explore the land's wildlife and culture. GG is slated to hit the screens on October 28 in Kannada, Hindi and English. The film's trailer was released recently.
Produced by the late actor's wife Ashwini Puneeth Rajkumar, the film has music by B Ajaneesh Loknath and cinematography by Pratheek Shetty.
Drishyam (2013) director Jeethu Joseph teams up with Asif Ali for the first time for Kooman. The actor shared the first look of the film on his social media. Asif Ali is shown staring at something with a scared face in the poster.
Helmed by Jeethu Joseph, the film is written by KR Krishna Kumar. Satheesh Kurup is the cinematographer and Vinayak Sasikumar has penned lyrics to Vishnu Shyam’s music.
Directed by Rosshan Andrrews, Saturday Night is a light-hearted entertainer. The film is a tale of friendships and follows Stanley and his group of friends as they come together. The release date of the film was announced on the occasion of Nivin Pauly’s birthday. The actor shared the announcement on his twitter handle.
The film also stars Siju Wilson, Aju Varghese, and Saiju Kurup in prominent roles, and is produced by Vinayaka Ajith.
Directed by Ram, Yezhu Kadal Yezhu Malai is billed to be a romantic movie. The title teaser of the movie was released on the shared birthday of both Ram and Nivin Pauly. The title announcement video gives a glimpse into the characters and suggests the movie will be an epic love story. Filmmaker Vignesh Shivan announced the title on his twitter handle along with a birthday wish for director Ram and actor Nivin Pauly. Anjali has been roped in to play the female lead and the music for the film is composed by Yuvan Shakar Raja.
Mehandi Circus actor Madhampatty Rangaraj is all set to make a comeback with Seenu Ramasamy’s directorial. The actor shared the announcement on his social media on the birthday of the National Award-winning director Seenu Ramasamy.
Touted to be a romantic entertainer, Oh Meri Laila pulls one into the familiar world of college romance. The teaser gives us a glimpse into the lives of two characters who are in love and are shown constantly talking to each other over phone.
Directed by Abhishek KS, Oh Meri Laila is written by Anuraj OB. Kiran Das has handled the editing and the film stars Antony Varghese and Senthil Krishna in lead roles.
The PS Mithran directorial is a spy thriller that also doubles up as a police drama. The trailer introduces the various avatars of Karthi. But the most significant of them all is the suave inspector Vijay Prakash. He is not your ideal Tamil film cop though. Instead of hiding in the modesty of his goodness, he thrives in the presence of acclaim and social media. The film also stars Raashii Khanna, Rajisha Vijayan, Chunky Panday and Laila.
Arjun Das starrer Aneethi is billed to be a revenge drama. The teaser doesn’t reveal much, but takes one into a world of blood and crime. Written and Directed by Vasanthabalan, the film stars Arjun Das in the lead role. GV Prakash Kumar has composed the music for the film and Ravikumar.M has handled the editing.
Set in an unnamed part in Northern Kerala, 1744 White Alto is a crime comedy drama. Directed by Senna Hegde, the film stars Sharafudheen, Rajesh Madhavan, and Vincy Aloshious.
Suraj Venjaramoodu and Ann Augustine play a married couple in the adaptation of writer's M Mukundan’s book Autorickshawkkarante Bharya. The story follows a lazy carefree autorickshaw driver who is forced to drive an auto rickshaw for a living. The film also marks the comeback of Ann Augustine.
The film is directed by Harikumar and written by M. Mukundan.
Suriya’s upcoming film, tentatively titled, Suriya 42, wrapped up its first schedule in Goa. The film marks the Tamil acting debut of Disha Patani, and went on floors in August. Helmed by Siva, the film is produced by Studio Green and UV Creations, and written by Adi Narayana. Devi Sri Prasad has composed the music and Vetri Palanisamy is the cinematographer. The film is touted to be released in 10 different languages.
Billed to be a psychological thriller, Marichi marks the directorial debut of Siddhruv. The name of the film is derived from Lord Brahma’s son, who is considered to be the Godfather of good and bad. Vijay Raghavendra and Sonu Gowda are reuniting for the film after their 2017 Kannada film Happy New Year.
Helmed by Prasobh Vijayan, Adi is a light hearted drama. Its poster gives a glimpse into the look of the characters played by Ahaana Krishna and Shine Chacko, who are staring at each other with their bruised faces. The film is produced by Dulquer Salmaan under the banner of Wayfarer Films.