Scripting a family story

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.

Meanwhile,Arivunidhi,the son of Karunanidhi’s eldest son M K Muthu,made his entry into the Tamil film industry as a singer. Muthu,himself a hero and playback singer at one time,is said to be have been introduced by Karunanidhi to counter the larger-than-life cinematic appeal of his friend-turned-foe M G Ramachandran. A trained doctor,Arivunidhi has sung for an upcoming film,the audio of which was released by the Chief Minister himself.

Besides his grandchildren,Karunanidhi’s grandnephews,the Marans are also involved in production and distribution through their banner Sun Pictures. The company has already released 11 films in a very short span of time,and is involved in producing the Rajnikanth-starrer Enthiran,tipped to be the costliest Indian film till date.