Tamil Entertainment News

Monal’s death was suicide

The autopsy done yesterday on actress Monal, who was found hanging in her house yesterday, has revealed that it was a case of “suicidal hanging”.

According to the doctor who had done the post-mortem examination on 22-year-old Monal, sister of renowned Hindi and Tamil actress Simran, it was a case of suicidal hanging.

“There was no sign of any physical violence or any other foul play” on her body, he told mediapersons here this evening.

After the autopsy, the body was handed over to the parents who took it to Mumbai for performing the last rites. Simran, now in Canada for a film shooting, will join the funeral today.

Several top film stars visited the Royapettah Government Hospital yesterday evening where the autopsy was done.

President of the South Indian Film Artistes Association K Vijaykanth told mediapersons that ending life in this fashion was not a solution to problems one faced. He would soon call a meeting of newcomers to impress upon them that none should resort to such suicidal methods. He regretted that more than half-a-dozen young female artistes had met with such a tragic end.

Monal, a newcomer to the Tamil film industry and who has acted in only a few films so far, was found hanging in her room. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was declared dead.

Actress Monal commits suicide

Monal, an upcoming actress of the Tamil film world, committed suicide this afternoon, her family sources said.

The sources said when the actress had been found hanging in her room, she had been taken to a corporate hospital, where she was declared dead.

The reason for taking this extreme step by the actress was not immediately known. A case had been registered, police said.

The 21-year old actress is survived by her parents and three sisters, including well-known Tamil actress Simran.

Her body had been taken to government Royapetta hospital for postmortem, police said.

Monal was adopted by the sister of her mother, with whom she was living for the past three years.

She had acted in six Tamil films, including box office hit ‘Samuthiram’ and in two Malayalam films.

Simran was abroad in connection with a film shooting and Monal’s funeral would be decided only after hearing from her, the sources added.

'Mysterious Girl' in Three Roses

The mirror on the wall of Snow White's time should feel lucky that it doesn't exists in reality and now. Considering all the insatiable souls, and as if enough wasn't enough, the number of beauties goes up by one more "Three Roses". There is yet another mystical flower being added to the script. Rekha Vedhaviyas, a Kannada actress plays the mysterious girl in the film Three Roses. The actress has played the role of a heroine in the Kannada version of the films "Chithiram" and "Anandam". Arjun, who was supposed to play the mysterious guy or the Charlie equivalent according to the script is now being replaced by Vijay Adhiraj, a television as well as film artiste. Three Roses is a home production of Rambha who plays one of the angels. Story, screenplay and direction by Parameswar.

Simran swinging 'in' the 'Dance Master'

Call it irony or destiny or the industry's taste of choosing peculiar names for their films. But Simran is now doing a movie called 'Dance Master'. It is too early to say anything about the movie, whether if she is finally coming full circle with her relationship she wanted to let go or if it a dedication to the lovely times of yesterday. But it is probably the right time to say she has definitely called the relationship off with Raju Sundaram who is still having a tough time getting over the girl who said "I love u daa". Raju's father is already on the hunt for a girl to get him married off as soon as possible. Simran seems to take everything in a stride, be it relationships or the news about the coward decision her sister plunged too. Simran who heard the news about Monal's death in Canada during Panchathanthiram's shooting did not fly back to the funeral of her sister because she felt if she did the whole shooting would come to a still for a few days, whereby the entire crew would have to prolong their stay in the freezing temperature. She seems to have told somebody in the crew something like that she had already warned Monal about not entering the industry. It's a man's world out there and Simran is certainly handling it with strength. Hope people appreciate her toughness instead of mocking her for not turning up at Monal's funeral. We definitely need more bold actresses like her than others who chose a coward decision of taking their lives assuming they were punishing the world

Pop Carn - fusion of music and love

As the name of the film suggests, it is inspired from the word Pop-Carnival. Nasser who had earlier done movies like Devathai, Avartharam and Maayan now is totally behind the camera. With the screenplay demanding a mature artiste he had approached Mohan Lal, his friend and the Malayalam superstar who agreed to play the role of the musician in the film. Simran stars opposite Mohanlal as a dancer. With one mega music festival in the center stage of the movie, the other characters revolve around it. The movie depicts the love between two musically inclined people ending up in a marriage, which finally turns sour. Determined to bring her father and mother back together to realize the love they once had, she goes about working to rejuvenate not just their relationship but also her father's long lost style of music. She also ends up finding the love of her life in the music festival. Jyothi Nawal, the sister of Simran plays the role of the daughter and you cannot but miss the striking resemblance she has with her sister Monal, who recently committed suicide. With music playing as one of the main ingredient, Nasser is already all praises for the numbers Yuvan Shankar Raja has scored for the movie. The other cast for the movie includes Sakthi, Oorvasi, Chandrasekar, Vivek, Pop Shalini, Janakaraj, Vadivelu, Delhi Ganesh, Thyagu, Madan Bob. Story, Screenplay and Direction by Nasser, cinematography by P.S.Dharan. Lyrics by Vaali and Art Direction by Padmashri Thotta Tharani.

Gemini yet another turning point for Chiyaan

While the music of Gemini created the stir when it was launched, the release of the movie, which was one of the Tamil New Year 2002 releases, is already being appreciated by movie buffs. The film was being made keeping in mind today's aggressive youth and it has succeeded reaching them. Gemini has served as a re-launch pad on action movies for Chiyaan Vikram after Dhil. While Chiyaan Vikram celebrates his birthday today on April 17th 2002 he is one of the actors with the most number of projects under his belt. The films Vikram is doing right now is Samurai, Dhool, Jana, King, Vikatan, Autograh, University and Dhilipan.

Mystery clouds actress Monal's death? Was money the issue?

Even before the Tamil industry could get out of the unexpected and sudden death of Pratyusha, it is yet another death of a young actress Monal, 21-years of age. The upcoming and talented artiste, who had wanted to be an actress ever since she was a child died a mysterious death with unfulfilled dreams. She made her debut into the Tamil film industry through Paarvai Onre Pothumey. She had starred with Vijay in Badhri, Samuthiram, Lovely and her recently released film Charlie Chaplin in which she played the role of a girl who commits suicide. Ironically the last scene for Pratyusha was also one in which she consumes poison and dies. The other films Monal had signed up was Pesatha Kannum Pesumey with Kunal. While there are wide speculations and rumors that the actress had committed suicide because of a broken heart and that her mother was against her to marry her lover who is reportedly supposed to be a brother of a choreographer. But sources confirm otherwise as that, she frequently has arguments with her mother regarding money. Monal had called up her PRO Riyaz at around 11:30 pm IST on the night on April 13th to confirm about an awards ceremony she was supposed to attend the next day. She had then called up a bank official regarding money transactions, which her mother had been handling so far. It was April 14th 2002, the Tamil New Year's Day when she was supposed to attend the launch of a new film called Pey Janmam but she failed to turn up at the launch. According to her mother, she had got a call from this lover of her, with whom she had a fight on the phone, finally went and locked herself in the room. Since she did not open the door for a long time, her mother and her kid cousin brother who had come down to Chennai for his summer vacation had to break open the door. They found Monal hanging from the ceiling. They immediately rushed her to a Surya hospital in Vadapalani, Chennai where she was declared dead. Her body was then transferred to the Royapettah General Hospital, Chennai for a post-mortem. A case has been filed to investigate the suspicion surrounding the actress' death. Present at Monal's house upon hearing her death were Sarathkumar, his wife Radhika, Abbas, Mumtaz and Vijay. Simran, her step sister and one of the popular heroines in the film industry is rushing back from Canada where she is shooting for the film Panchathanthiram opposite Kamal Hasan while Monal's Dad has flown in from Bombay and plans to take the body back to Mumbai for rest of the final rituals.

Aarthi a sure Winner

Arthi Agarwal who is making her debut into the Tamil film industry opposite Prashanth in the next film Winner. She may be new to the Tamil field but is already a leading heroine in the Telugu cine world. She has already starred in two Telugu films, one opposite N.T.Rama Rao's grandson and another film opposite Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi. Both the films were blockbusters and now she has the lucky girl tag to her name. And as far as Aarthi's acting goes, all her directors agree in unison that it doesn't take more than one take to ok her scenes. Though Arthi is getting a lot of film opportunities from the Tamil Cinema world she has her fingers crossed on her present project Winner with Prashanth. She is holding off by not signing other projects as she is waiting for the audience reaction to Winner. In winner she plays the role of a rich girl. Prashanth poses to work as a domestic help in the movie. The rest is a romantic comedy. Winner will it win?

Laila & Vikram bag the Filmfare Awards

It is the 'Dhil' having their hearts fulfilled with them bagging not just the filmfare awards but also the Dinkaran awards. The 49th filmfare awards for the south is scheduled to take place on April 20, 2002 at Chennai. While this is the second time Vikram is bagging a filmfare award for Laila it is the first time. Filmfare Awards: Best Actor : Vikram (Film - Kasi), Best Actress : Laila (Film - (Nandaa), Best Film: Anandam (Producer - R.B.Choudary), Best Director : Cheran (Film - Pandavar Bhoomi), Best Music Director : Harris Jayaraj (Film - Minnale)