Scripting a family story

When Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi refers to the Tamil film fraternity as his extended family, the allusion is quite literal. While the Chief Minister continues his six-decade long association with the silver-screen by penning occasional scripts and dialogues, the third generation of the family is already firmly entrenched in the field.

The latest entrant is M K T Arulnidhi, who met his grandfather Karunanidhi at the latter's residence last week. Arulnidhi, son of the Chief Minister's youngest son, M K Thamizharasu, has been cast as the lead of a film that will go on the floors soon. Thamizharasu will also turn producer with this film.

Young Arulnidhi is the fourth from the third generation of the Karunanidhi family to venture into Tamil cinema.

Udhayanidhi Stalin, the son of Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin was the first, when he turned producer after launching Red Giant Movies in 2008.

After mass entertainers Kuruvi and Aadhavan, the production company snapped up director Gowtham Menon's new venture, even as he announced the film with Kamal Hassan that will begin shooting soon. He has done a cameo for the second film, and there are rumours in the industry that he will be seen in a lengthier role in the upcoming Kamal movie. Incidentally, Udhayanidhi's father M K Stalin has acted in a couple of movies, and a TV serial that was aired on Sun TV years ago.

Union Minister M K Azhagiri's son Durai Dhayanidhi followed in Udhaynidhi's steps, starting with the distribution of Vaaranam Aayiram that bagged the recently announced national award for best Tamil film.

His Cloud Nine Movies has ventured into production with the quirky Tamizh Padam, a spoof on Tamil movies, which is currently running in theatres to rave reviews. The production house is following it with three more films, of which one was launched by Azhagiri during his birthday celebrations in Madurai last week.

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