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ABC’s Replay “Modern Family” is the No. 1 Scripted Show at 8pm In Adults 18-49, Finishing 13% Ahead of NBC’s Original “Mercy” On its First Original Airing in 3 Weeks, “The Middle” is the Top Scripted Show In its Slot in Adults 18-49, Beating NBC’s “Mercy” and CBS’ “Gary Unmarried” Surging 66% in Adults 18-49 from its Lead-in Against Fox’s 2-Hour “Idol,” ABC’s “Modern Family” is the No. 1 Scripted Show in its Slot for its 4th Straight Original “Modern Family – WED 8PM” (8:00-8:30 p.m.) Opposite the opening half-hour of Fox’s 2-hour “American Idol” (Top 10 female performances), ABC’s rebroadcast airing of “Modern Family” finished as the No. 1 scripted show at 8:00 p.m. in Adults 18-49 (1.7/5), beating NBC’s original “Mercy” by 13% (1.5/4) and tying CBS’ original “Old Christine” (1.7/5). “The Middle” (8:30-9:00 p.m.) Returning to original for the first time in 3 weeks, ABC’s “The Middle” ranked as the No. 1 scripted show at 8:30 p.m. in Adults 18-49 (2.1/6),

If you would’ve seen these numbers last May, you wouldn’t have even thought twice about them. In Late-Night Fast Nationals Wednesday Night: “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (1.5 rating in adults 18-49) led the time period over CBS’s “Late Show with David Letterman” (1.0) and ABC’s “Nightline (0.9) in fast national “live plus same day” ratings from Nielsen Media Research. The “Tonight” margin over “Late Show” in fast-national adult 18-49 rating is 50 percent. Wednesday’s “Tonight” finished within a tenth of a point of its Monday and Tuesday result in adults 18-49 (1.6 each night in fast nationals). In total viewers in the fast nationals, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” (5.4 million) ranked #1 among the major networks in the time period over “Late Show” (3.7 million) and “Nightline” (3.4 million). The “Tonight” margin over “Late Show” in total viewers in these fast-national results is 47 percent. At 12:3

“NIGHTLINE” IS #1 AMONG ADULTS 25-54, ADULTS 18-49, AND TOTAL VIEWERS—OUTPERFORMS “LETTERMAN” ABC News “Nightline” placed first among Adults 25-54, Adults 18-49, and Total Viewers, outperforming CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” for the week of February 22, 2010, according to Nielsen Media Research. NBC’s “The Tonight Show” was pre-empted due to the Winter Olympics. For the season, “Nightline” also continues to rank second, besting “Tonight” among Total Viewers (3.90 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.58 million / 1.3 rating ). Last week, “Nightline” featured a “Face-Off” on weight, a profile of financial guru Dave Ramsey, more on Toyota’s recall, a report on the Drew Peterson case and whether hearsay evidence from the deceased can be admissible, and coverage of the winter storm that impacted much of the east coast. *Note: “Letterman” aired repeats last week. ABC News’ “Nightline” is anchored by Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Martin Bashir. John Donvan

“CRIMINAL MINDS” IS WEDNESDAY’S NUMBER ONE SCRIPTED PROGRAM IN VIEWERS AND ADULTS 18-49 “CSI: NY” Places First at 10:00 PM in Viewers and Key Demos CBS Is Second for the Night in Viewers and Demos CRIMINAL MINDS was Wednesday’s number one scripted program in viewers and adults 18-49 and CSI: NY placed first at 10:00 PM in viewers and key demos, according to Nielsen preliminary live plus same day ratings for March 3 . At 9:00 PM, CRIMINAL MINDS was second in households (8.2/13), viewers (13.18m), adults 25-54 (4.5/10) and adults 18-49 (3.6/09). CSI: NY was first in households (7.8/14), viewers (12.45m), adults 25-54 (4.0/11) and adults 18-49 (3.1/09). For the night, CBS was second in households (6.6/11), viewers (10.54m), adults 25-54 (3.6/09) and adults 18-49 (2.8/08), all behind two hours of “American Idol” on FOX. Updated Wednesday ratings will be available later today.

Scoreboard Rating: Adults 18-49 8.5/23 2.8/6 2.3/6 2.0/6 1.3/4 0.3/1 Rating: Adults 18-34 7.2/22 1.7/5 1.8/6 1.6/5 1.4/4 0.4/1 Total Viewers (million) 23.55 10.54 7.52 5.57 3.34 .77 FOX easily won the night as American Idol dominated. It’s 8.5/23 with adults 18-49 between 8-10p outpaced the combined competition. CBS’s Wednesday comedy block suffered with The New Adventures of Old Christine down 26% from its last new episode and Gary Unmarried was down 17%. Criminal Minds fared much better, down only 3% from its last original outing. CSI:NY was down 9% as Law & Order: SVU gave it much more of a run for the money than The Jay Leno Show ever did, and NBC rose from the cellar to take third place for the night. ABC had a bad night with The Middle down 28% from its last original outing, and Modern Family down 15%. Cougar Town was down 11%. With a 1.3 adu

DIY NETWORK AND “TODAY” PARTNER FOR THIRD ANNUAL SEARCH FOR AMERICA’S MOST DESPERATE LANDSCAPE Selected Finalists to Compete Live on National Morning Show in May; Winner Gets a Major Yard Makeover and Starring Role on DIY Network Special in Mid-June NEW YORK , March 4, 2010 – DIY Network , the go-to-destination for home improvement television, and TODAY , the No. 1 morning show, are teaming up for the third consecutive year to find America’s Most Desperate Landscape . Since partnering together in 2008, more than 23,000 homeowners have uploaded videos of their desperate landscapes to DIYnetwork.com in hopes of winning a $25,000 yard makeover. Beginning on Monday, March 8 , homeowners looking to win this year’s landscape lottery have until Monday, May 3, to submit photos and videos of their hurting yards. In 2009, Cliff and Kimberly Dees of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., were the lucky recipients of the most extravagant yard makeover in DIY Network’s history. On Tuesday,

A four-wicket haul from allrounder Waqas Ahmed helped Lahore Lions steal a two-run victory, their third straight win in the tournament, against Multan Tigers at the National Stadium. In chase of 167, Kashif Naved shone with a 42-ball 58, which included five fours and two sixes. He was supported by Rameez Alam's 33 but Waqas picked up wickets regularly after the pair were dismissed to turn the game in Lahore's favour. Lahore had slipped to 41 for 3 in their innings but were revived by the Akmal brothers, Umar and Kamran, who added 54 for the fourth wicket. Umar went on to score 64 while Waqas dealt some lusty blows at the death to lift Lahore to a score that proved just about adequate.

Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman, has said the heated exchanges between players, like the one between Mitchell Johnson and Scott Styris in the first ODI in Napier, are likely to continue for the remainder of the series. Johnson and Styris bumped shoulders and appeared to clash heads in the 46th over of New Zealand's chase, and were fined by the match referee as a result. But McCullum said the nature of the trans-Tasman rivalry made for an intense atmosphere on the field. ''Australia is playing New Zealand, so it's always going to be testy,'' McCullum was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald. ''Both teams are playing for their countries, trying to win for their countries, and we're always going to have banter out in the middle. What we saw [between Johnson and Styris] was two guys who are extremely passionate in trying to pull through for their country. ''Both players had a talking to from the match referee, so t

Two teams that have lost most of their ODIs in the past year will be aiming to change that in this five-match series. On a cloudy day in Guyana, Prosper Utseya again won the toss and decided to bat first, hoping the pitch will assist his spinners in the afternoon. The track is expected to be batsmen-friendly, with not too much pace or bounce to trouble them. Zimbabwe have not made any changes to the XI that pulled off a come-from-behind victory in the Twenty20 on Sunday. West Indies, on the other hand, have made plenty of changes to their side: the most important is that Chris Gayle is back, to provide power at the top of the order. The home side have also packed their team with slow bowlers, left-arm spinner Nikita Miller and offspinner Narsingh Deonarine are back, and Gayle himself can send down a few overs. The move comes after West Indies sunk to defeat in the Twenty20 despite Sulieman Benn's stunning bowling that sliced through the Zimbabwe top order. Zim

The IPL management has laid down the guidelines for when teams can use their two-and-a-half minute strategic time-out in 2010: the bowling side can ask for the break between the sixth and eighth overs while the batting team can opt for the same anywhere between overs 11 to 16. The mid-innings strategic time-out, which came in for widespread criticism after it was introduced in the 2009 season, had been reduced from seven-and-a-half minutes per side for the third season. Lalit Modi , the IPL chairman, admitted that the league was forced to review the duration of the timeout after important players including Sachin Tendulkar had disapproved of the long break because it hampered a team's momentum. "That was a trial process," Modi said. "Now we have changed it to total of five minutes split into two-and-a-half minutes for each time. The bowling team can take it from overs six to eight while we have noticed that the batting team always need to disc

In April when most of the schools will be gearing to close down for its annual vacations, then this reel school will open… Director Milind Ukey’s film 'Paathshaala' is reported to release on 16th April. The film starring Shahid Kapoor, Ayesha Takia and Nana Patekar, is based on the drawbacks of the contemporary education system. Presented by Eros International, 'Paathshaala' is produced by choreographer Ahmed Khan and his wife Shaira under the banner Paperdoll Entertainment. Says Ahmed, “Since the subject matter is how the education system exercises pressure on children, my film is getting a lot of attention and I have been approached by many people who want to tie up with me.” The film has attempted to reflect an interesting aspect as well – by portraying how kids’ reality show has adverse affect on children.

Cinevistaas Limited, a Mumbai-based leading film and television production company, is now set to make it’s entry into the Southern regional television space after having established their presence in Hindi programming. Launched in 1982, Cinevistaas has being providing television content to Doordarshan, Cinevistaas Limited has also been a content partner for a majority of satellite broadcasters. Cinevistaas Limited has also produced and has been involved in producing and distributing regional content in Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil and Kannada languages more so during the years 1994 to 1996 when they marketed Kannada movies on DD Kendra Bangalore and T.V. series like Kshyanaya Dharithri (produced by Grurdas Shenoy), Gorur Kathalokha (directed by Narasimhan) and Officeyana (directed by T.S. Nagabharana) to name a few. In fact, Cinevistaas has over 3000 hours of television software created and owned by it. Speaking on this development, Sunil Mehta, Vice-Chairman and Managing

The year seems to be filled with enough multi-starrer films and one of them is this Anees Bazmee’s ‘No Problem’. Being produced by Anil Kapoor, the film includes Sanjay Dutt, Akshaye Khanna, Sunil Shetty, Bipasha Basu, Sushmita Sen, Kangana Ranaut, Neetu Chandra, Paresh Rawal, besides Anil. The latest buzz from the film’s front is that it has also given an exclusive space for a gorilla! The animal said to give its appearance in the climax part, which is being shot in Mumbai currently. The gorilla has been flown especially from South Africa, after an intense search in London, Los Angeles and Italy. The mammal has cost a fortune for the producer, but Anil said that he doesn’t mind spending the amount when it enhances his film.

King Khan is happy and it shows, the actor who is finding it difficult to adjust the bouquets and gifts he is receiving from around the globe will now cheer his IPL team with more smiles and enthusiasm. In a video conference with reporters, the Bollywood Badshah said, “I will sing, I will dance, I will be there to cheer up the boys.” SRK was in controversy for expressing his desire to have a Pakistani player in his team which resulted in strong reaction from the Shiv Sena which threatened to disturb the screening if SRK didn’t apologize, he didn’t and there where protest resulting in arrest and unwanted chaos anyway better sense form the government prevailed and the movie got released in the B-town and now when its creating history at the global scene. We wish SRK all the best and hope that his team KKR does write some story in this years IPL glory.

Mumbai Police along with AA Khan & Associates raided 2 locations in Mumbai and seized over 21,000 pirated DVDs and CDs worth over Rs. 1, 50, 000. The first raid was conducted at Lamington Road, around 6000 pirated CDs and DVDs were seized at the location. The pirated CDs and DVDs included last week’s release ‘Toh Baat Pakki’, ‘Up in the Air’, ‘It’s Complicated’ and ‘My Name is Khan’. The total amount of confiscated goods was around Rs. 60,000. The next raid was carried out at Chembur, at a shop in Basant Park and Orbis Shop near the railway station and uncovered 15000 pirated CDs and DVDs. The DVDs and CDs found included latest Hindi as well as English movies. Goods confiscated were pegged at around Rs.99, 800. The raids were conducted by a 4 member team from AA Khan & Associates along with officials from area specific police station. On behalf of the film industry Mr. AA Khan, former IPS officer & Ex. ATS Chief says, “Piracy is a serious offence and one w

It seems after SRK stand, Bollywood is finally gaining courage and giving their true voice and rejecting some people opinion on the issue of being a Marathi and a Mumbaikar. Speaking at ‘Swar–Asha’ an event organized by a Marathi channel, the legendary Bollywood singer said, “Mumbai belongs to all.” And continued further by saying, “I sing in Hindi and am learning Marathi.” The remark came after Raj Thackery said, “Asha Bhosale has sung many songs in different languages. People in different parts of India accept these songs as their own. This happened only because she is Marathi.” But when Asha Bhosle made the statement, everyone including the MNS chief went ‘Speechless’.

Nana Patekar will act in V V Vinayak’s biggie Badrinath starring Allu Arjun. It’s being reported that Allu Arvind has convinced the moody Nana and agreed on the price. And why not? Allu Arvind is determined to make ‘Badrinath’ a real extravaganza and has roped in M M Keeravani for music and ace cinematographer Ravi Varman who worked for films like ‘Aparachitudu’ and ‘Dasavatharam’ to wield the camera.

Senior popular song recordist Satish Sawant who made history when he recorded a SYNC song (no dubbing) with single mike and simple Nagra machine in Bangalore for M S Sathyu’s under production Kanada film “Ijjodiu” met with a sudden death. He was 58. On 26th of Feb, he had a massive heart attack in his sleep, next morning his family members found him dead. In the field as a sound recorder since 1971, Satish Sawant was regular for Balaji Tele Films, A K Productions, S M Abbas and M S Sathyu. He had also worked with Shekhar Kapur, David Dhawan, Syed Mirza and Aroona Irani. Satish Sawant is survived his wife, son, sister and elder brother Dilip Sawant, who is also in same profession.

After playing a glam-doll in several films, Neha Dhupia is going to shed the hot image for once in her upcoming film ‘With Love To Obama’. The film which will be directed by Subhash Kapoor will feature Neha sans glamour quotient and in never-before-avatar. The actress plays Munni in this, where sources say, is a character that partially reflects the mannerisms of UP CM Mayawati. While Neha will follow Mayawati’s speech, body language and style, her looks won’t be based on the political leader. For this the actress said to have done vast homework by observing Mayawati’s live interviews and speeches on internet. “She is, by far, the most experimental character I have played,” shared Neha, “She is brave, strong, earthy and a very strong woman in a big, bad world full of men. I worked on my accent, body language and look. Thanks to my director, we cracked this one. I have never been this extensively prepared and nervous before getting into character for a film.” Looks like

Karan Johar directed and SRK-Kajol starrer, ‘My Name Is Khan’ (MNIK) has gone out to make a new history. The film, which released on Feb 12, has become a top-grosser film in North America with total sales of $3,635,000 after 17 days of release. Being a path-breaking film in Shah Rukh’s career, MNIK has surpassed his earlier 2007 film ‘Om Shanti Om’ records (of $3,597,372) and continues to play in 119 theatres across the US and Canada in its third week of play. ‘My Name Is Khan’ has proved fruitful for the director as well; by becoming his highest grossing film surpassing the collection of ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ ($3,275,444) It is reported that a week earlier, with a Sunday sale of $761,000, ‘MNIK’ recorded the highest one-day gross ever for any Hindi-language film in North America. Besides, the film's Feb 12-14 opening weekend sales of $1,939,000 was again a new record for a Hindi film beating the $1,764,131 of ‘Om Shanti Om’. With an estimated 4-day opening weekend figure of $2,

We love technology, but there are times when the smart-pants science types help the bad guys even more than the good guys. The latest example is called the Electronic Key Impressioner (EKI), and it makes the job of a locksmith (or Memphis Raines) a lot easier than it has ever been before. The scanner is a small hand-held device (pictured, above) with a scanning tip that electronically maps the inside of car locks. The device can then be attached to a computer via a USB device where lock mapping software accesses a list of updated key codes. While the EKI system sounds pretty easy to use, there are still some drawbacks. First of all, the device presently only works with Fords, though the creators hope to expand the amount of vehicles with which the EKI can work in the near future. The system also only works with traditional keys – the ever more ubiquitous transponder keys render the EKI useless. But there are still millions of vehicles with traditional keys on U.S. roads, and if the EKI

Two different outlets are reporting two seemingly conflicting reports about pay at General Motors, but it's clear regardless of the details that money is in motion at The General. Ed Whitacre, Jr., who doesn't receive any pay as GM's chairman, is waiting on approval from the Treasury pay czar for a $9 million "pay package" for his recent move to CEO. The pay has been "approved 'in principle'," but we aren't sure when it's going to be paid. Bloomberg reports that "GM said Whitacre's annual compensation will be $9 million, with a $1.7 million cash salary, $5.3 million in stock that begins paying in 2012 and $2 million in restricted stock." The Detroit News says that Whitacre will get the $1.7 million, but that the $5.3 million in stock will be paid out on a predetermined scheduled over three years starting in 2012. The $2 million in restricted stock is also reportedly performance based, but what criteria will be used to determ

If you saved your company $1 million, you'd brag about it, right? How about $100 million? Certainly you'd be looking for a few pats on the back for such a massive sum of loot. A report in The Detroit Free Press reveals that Yoshimi Inaba, chairman and CEO of Toyota Motors Sales in the U.S., allegedly did such bragging back on July 6, 2010, but the topic was "Wins for Toyota" and the subject was safety. The Freep obtained the internal presentation on Sunday as Toyota handed over thousands of documents to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in advance of its February 24 hearing. The over $100 million in savings was spread across nine points outlined by Inaba in the presentation, which outlined savings obtained by delaying safety regulations and avoiding investigations. Inaba's presentation states that the company saved $124 million with "added lead-time and phase in" for a side-impact airbag standard. There is also a bullet under the defect

Recently the buzz in Cricket is all about Tendulkar who has scored the first double hundred in ODI cricket. That is a world record and I started wondering how many world records does Tendulkar own. Here is a compiled list of all records the great man owns… * Most runs scored by a batsman in Test career: 13,477 runs. * Most runs scored by a batsman in ODI career: 17,598 runs. * Most centuries scored by in Test career: 47 hundreds. * Most centuries scored in a ODI career: 46 hundreds. * Most fifties in a Test career: 54 * Most fifties in a ODI career: 94 * Most fours hit in a Test career: 1746 * Most fours hit in a ODI career: 1927 * Most nineties in a ODI career: 18 (Just imagine if he had converted even half of them to 100s!) * Most man of match awards in ODI career: 61 * Most man of the series awards in ODI career: 15 * Highest individual score in a ODI match: 200* * First batsman to score 200 in a ODI match. * Highest number of international

Have you ever heard the statement – “ Write for People not Search Engines “? It’s a teaching that many bloggers have heard that encourages bloggers not to compromise the quality of their blog posts in order to get search engine traffic. The temptation that some bloggers fall into is writing the kind of content that ranks well in Google – but which becomes increasingly unreadable to real people. What if there was another way to Rank Higher in Search Engines Without Compromising The Quality of Your Posts? I’ve long thought (and taught) that there was a better way. Using a well optimized blog theme (like Thesis) and knowing some basic principles of SEO so that as you write your quality content you naturally use them to improve your SEO. Having the basics of SEO in mind as you write and tweaking your content as you write it is great – however it requires you to know some of those basics. Now there IS an easier way Brian Clark has just released Scribe – a WordPress Plugin

Home internet service prices could fall by two-thirds, thanks to one of two new Abu Dhabi-backed satellites to be launched next year by Yahsat. According to Shawkat Ahmad, Yahsat Chief Commercial Officer, the cost for a regular Yahsat monthly home internet package could be as low as Dh117 beginning 2012. Broadband service "It is a revolutionary satellite to offer this service," Ahmad told XPRESS in an interview at Satellite MENA 2010 conference in Dubai. "Our new satellite will offer broadband service in 27 countries." Yahsat is 100 per cent owned by the Abu Dhabi government's investment arm Mubadala Development Company and is set to launch Yahsat 1 in the first quarter of 2011 and Yahsat 2 in the fourth quarter of the same year. YahClick services Ahmad said it's new YahClick services will do more than just bring inexpensive internet services to Africa and the Middle East - the new service will be much faster as well. Compared to some curren

The "last mile" that delivers video-on-demand, high definition TV and high-speed internet will soon blanket the whole of the UAE, thanks to a massive network rollout set to make the country one of the world's few fibre-optic wired nations, XPRESS has learnt. There are only 20 countries that have fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) penetration rates of more than one per cent at the end of 2009, according to the non-profit FTTH Council. Under etisalat's plan, the entire UAE will reach 100 per cent e-Lite (FTTH service) connectivity by mid-2011, surpassing most European countries, a senior etisalat official said. "We're on track in deploying this technology. The ultimate aim is to deliver superior speeds and rich services to customers in the last mile - inside their homes and businesses - using a single fibre," said Ali Al Ahmad, Group Chief Strategy Officer of etisalat. Etisalat's current FTTH rollout record, having reached more than one million subscribers, puts

Sandalwood's Power star Puneeth is one busy man these days; the actor has just wrapped up the final schedule of his upcoming flick Prithvi in Jordan and also started working on his next film Jackie. Prithvi is directed by Jacob Verghese for producer Soorappa Babu and N.S. Rajakumar; Parvathi Menon is the heroine. Jackie will have the Power Star teaming up with Malayalam actress Bhavana for the first time. The film, directed by Soori of Dhuniya, Inthi Ninna Preeethiya and Junglee fame, is produced by Parvathamma Rajkumar under Dr. Rajkumar's family banner Poornima Enterprises, which has produced over 75 films so far. In a leading English daily when asked about working back-to-back without a break, the actor said, "It's nice working on back-to-back films. I'm happy that I'm getting good scripts, good technicians and different directors," Harikrishna will be scoring the music for Jackie, and it will be the third consecutive time he's worked on a Puneeth f

The canning of a song in Allu Arjun's forthcoming action movie Varudu, being directed by Gunasekhar, was left unfinished after Allu Arjun fractured his wrist during the shooting, the actor's brother Allu Sirish tweeted on Wednesday evening. Sirish also maintained that the actor is determined to complete the rest of the shooting, so that the film is ready for March end or April first week as planned. Produced by D.V.V. Danayya under the banner of Universal Media, Varudu will be released in Telugu and Malayalam simultaneously. Director Gunasekhar said Allu Arjun will be seen in a role that he never played before. A new heroine is making her debut, but her name is yet to be revealed. Renowned director Singeetham Sreenivas Rao appears in a special role. Tamil hero Arya plays the villain.

After the roaring success of Aptha Rakshaka at the box office, director P. Vasu is all set to start his next project Puli Vesham with R.K. in the lead role. The film is expected to narrate the journey of an innocent youth from village to city. The latest buzz is that the director has approached pretty actress Sada to play one of the leading ladies in the film. A search is on for the other heroine, sources said. Reportedly the director was keen on working with the actress in Chandramukhi and Aptha Rakshaka but it didn't work out due to some unavoidable reasons. Sada has recently made her Bollywood debut with Click.

It was something the cast and crew would never forget! It concerns Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan and South Indian superstar Vikram, who play lead roles in ace Mani Ratnam's big budget Raavan, being simultaneously made in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. Talking to a news daily, a close source said: There was a vital sequence in which Vikram had to climb down a 2000 feet high cliff. Action director Sham Kaushal had taken all necessary precautions to make sure there was minimal risk involved for the actors but he didn't know Vikram had a vertigo problem. Being a thorough professional, Vikram did not outright refuse to do the shot, but his anxiety while doing the rehearsals was sensed by co-star Abhishek Bachchan, with whom he shares a great working relationship. Incidentally, it was Abhishek who stepped up by volunteering to do the risky stunt himself. "Despite not being required for the shot, Abhishek began climbing down the mountain and asked Vikram to follow suit. All the whil

Mega Super Good Films' Bheemili Kabadi Jattu, being directed by debut Tatineni Satya, and jointly produced by Paras Jain and N.V. Prasad, has completed its entire shooting and entered into the post production phase. A remake of super hit Tamil film Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, the film is expected to grace screens by March end. Bheemili Kabadi Jattu stars Nani and Saranya Mohan in the lead roles. The audio will be released during the second week of March. Selva Ganesh is the music director. Cinematography is by Chittibabu. Editing is by Nandamuri Hari, while art is by Kumar.

Youth icon Prithviraj's next Malayalam film under the direction of debut Fazal has been titled Mumbai Dost. Produced by Howli Pottoor under the banner of Dream Team Productions, the film will start rolling in Mumbai and Kerala from October. Fazal has worked as an associate director in several films directed by Rafi-Mecartin. Incidentally, Fazal's first film would also be scripted by Rafi and Mecartin, who have already scripted several successful films. The heroine of the film is yet to be decided. Lalu Alex, Manoj K. Jayan, Salim Kumar and Suraj are others in the cast. Prithviraj has just completed Pokkiri Raja, in which he plays the younger brother of Mammootty and has more than his hands full with several good projects. Some of them are ace Mani Ratnam's Raavan, Anwar, Raghupathi Raghava Rajaram and Cousins.

After her splendid performance in Arundhati, sensuous beauty Anushka will be seen in yet another heroine-oriented film titled Rudrama Devi, to be directed by Gunashekar with a whopping budget of Rs. 40 crore. The film will have Anushka playing the role of a queen. Some say the film will be the story of Rani Rudrama Devi (1261-1296), one of the most prominent rulers of the Kakatiya dynasty in India. Legend has it that since her father Ganapathideva had no sons, Rudrama was formally designated as a son through the ancient Putrika ceremony and given the male name of Rudra Deva. When she was only 14 years old, Rani Rudrama Devi succeeded her father. Rudrama Devi was an able fighter and dynamic ruler. She defended the kingdom from the Cholas and the Yadavas and was one of very few female rulers in South India during her time.

One of the greatest pairs in the history of Malayalam cinema, superstar Mohanlal and talented Sreenivasan are back again, sharing screen space in actor Manian Pillai Raju's latest production venture Oru Naal Varum. The duo is coming together nearly four years after their last smash hit Udayananu Tharam. Being directed by Rajeev Kumar, Oru Naal Varum has started rolling recently. Scripted by Sreenivasan, the film has Mohanlal playing the role of a village farmer who comes to Thiruvananthapuram selling everything in his village for his children's higher education. He buys a plot of land and wants to build a house in the city. After drawing the plan of his new house, he submits it to the Town Planning officer (Sreenivasan) at the Corporation office. His trouble begins from then on. Also in the cast are Sooraj Venjaranmoodu, Nedumudi Venu and Tamil actress Devayani. Manoj Pillai is the cameraman. The film will be completed in one schedule in and around Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyak

Popular South Indian actress Devayani, whose name is almost synonymous with her mini-screen name Abhinaya in Sun TV's super hit TV serial 'Kolangal', will don a substantial role in Mohanlal-Sreenivasan's comeback film Oru Naal Varum, being directed by Rajeev Kumar and produced by Manian Pillai Raju. Oru Naal Varum started rolling recently. It is noteworthy that Devayani has already done 10 movies in Malayalam, including super hit Threemen Army, Appan Rajaav Achchan Jaedhaav, Kinnam Katta Kallan, Balettan, Kaathil Oru Kinnaram and Kakkakum Poochakkum Kalyanam. This three-time Tamil Nadu State award winning actress has acted in over 50 movies in Tamil, 3 in Hindi and 4 in Telugu. She also starred in a Bengali film Thushor Kho Thuli. Scripted by Sreenivasan, Oru Naal Varum revolves around a village farmer (Mohanlal) who comes to the state capital after selling everything in his village for the further education of his children. He buys a plot of land and wants to build a h

After their super hit combo in Avvai Shanmugi (1996), Thenali (2000), Panchathantiram (2002) and Dasavathaaram (2008), legendary South Indian actor Kamal Haasan and hit maker K.S. Ravikumar are coming together again with a Tamil film titled Yavarum Kaelir. Ravikumar has already finished the screenplay; Trisha will be the heroine. This is the first time she will appear opposite Kamal Haasan. Udayanidhi Stalin is the producer and he will also be seen in an important role in Yavarum Kaelir, a Deepavali offering. Interestingly, the title seems to be inspired from a famous line by Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongundranar Yaadhum Oore, Yavarum Kelir, which means The whole world is my place and all are my neighbours. The latest buzz is that actress-dancer-choreographer Gayathri Raghuram will assist K.S. Ravikumar in Yavarum Kaelir. Gayathri has acted in Vikadan, Charlie Chaplin and has also choreographed songs like 'Dekho' (Aadhavan), 'Excuse me' (Kanthaswamy) and 'Oh Maha Zeeya&#

Cinematographer-turned-director K.V. Anand's upcoming film Ko is making headlines ever since its launch. First, heroine Tamannaah was replaced by Karthika, daughter of yesteryear beauty Radha. Then came the shocker when Silambarasan walked out of the project after the photo shoot and Jiiva took up the task. Then actor Jiiva was denied a visa by the Chinese government, which created more trouble for the crew. Now, the latest we hear is that the director is working on the film under full secrecy. He has also clearly instructed all the crew members not to reveal anything about the film to outsiders. Due to Jiiva's visa problem, the director is currently shooting on a war footing at the AVM Studios. S. Kumar and R. Jayaraman of RS Infotainment, who produced Gautham Menon's Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, are producing Ko. The movie is expected be a commercial entertainer on the lines of K.V. Anand's earlier venture Ayan. The title Ko means 'king' in Tamil. Anand will agai

Ryan Sidebottom is set to fly home from the England tour of Bangladesh, after failing to recover from a thigh injury, and he could yet be joined on the plane by Stuart Broad and Graham Onions, both of whom are being sent for MRI scans on their lower back, as the England camp was hit by a wave of injuries ahead of the third ODI in Chittagong. Sidebottom produced an off-colour performance in the first ODI in Dhaka, before being replaced by the spinner James Tredwell for the second, having aggravated a thigh injury he sustained after landing on the boundary rope during the opening Twenty20 in Dubai last month. He will be replaced in the Test squad by the Yorkshire paceman, Tim Bresnan, who took the new ball in Sidebottom's absence on Tuesday. For Sidebottom this is the latest in a long line of injuries which have hampered him since his peak in early 2008 when he was England's leading bowler. He was first struck down with an Achilles problem later that summer against South Africa b

Bangladesh's selectors have included the medium-pacer Nazmul Hossain in the squad for the final ODI against England. Nazmul joined the team in Chittagong on Wednesday and attended the practice session today morning. Nazmul, 22, has recovered from a right quadriceps muscle injury which had ruled him out of the tri-series at home in January. In 32 ODIs, he has taken 36 wickets at 33.16. Bangladesh have already handed over the three-match series 0-2 to England.

Big Picture Until Eoin Morgan produced a display of brilliant hitting Bangladesh sensed their chance to notch a maiden victory against England in Mirpur but the wait goes on. Morgan's display also secured the series for England however, the visitors have been far from convincing and the gap between the sides is narrowing as quickly as the UK opinion polls. Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladesh captain, didn't hide his disappointment at a couple of umpiring decisions that didn't go his team's way - notably an lbw appeal against Morgan when he had 7 - but he has also been criticised in some quarters for his decision to recall paceman Shafiul Islam for the death overs. That, though, is harsh on Shakib who is moulding a young team in very promising fashion. A consolation victory is now all they can aim for in Chittagong, the coastal town a six-hour train journey from Dhaka (or supposedly a 50-minute flight, but England were delayed six hours), although Banglades