India's Southern states are celebrating their golden jubilee. To commemorate their 50 year anniversary, news channel CNN-IBN is conducting an online poll to determine the most popular people in each state. The poll for Kerala [Images] has just been completed, and the winner is Mohanlal with 30% of the votes. Mammootty was right behind him with 22% votes. Others in the list were EMS Namboodiripad, PT Usha, KR Narayanan and E Sreedharan. However, many Keralites are shocked by Yesudas not featuring on the list, and feel he would have won, hands down.

An amused and happy Mohanlal spoke to rediff.com from Ottappalam, where he's currently shooting for a Malayalam film, and expressed his happiness over the love and affection showered on him by Keralites. He was just back from Mumbai after completing the first schedule of Ram Gopal Varma's Sholay [Images], where he plays the role immortalised by Sanjeev Kumar in the original. The actor said he'd return to Mumbai in December for a longer schedule.

Dil Raju is riding high

Dil Raju certainly has the Midas touch. He's struck gold with his fourth consecutive hit, as the producer of Bommarillu. With Dil, Arya, Bhadra and now Bommarillu, things are surely going great for him. At a young age, he's established himself as a top producer. And he's discovered debutant director Bhaskar. Siddharth does well in Bommarillu, still riding his star turn in Rang De Basanti [Images]. Genelia's performance has been appreciated.

Bommarillu is charting the blockbuster path and might even surpass Pokiri's performance at the box office. The story may be a routine one about the father-son relationship but fresh treatment and some innovative ideas have added the magic. A youthful team seems to have done the trick. 

Raghuvaran, the villain in Sivaji

Finally the search for the villain for Shankar's Sivaji is over. The first actor Shankar approached for the Rajnikanth [Images] film was Mohanlal, confirmed by the Malayalam superstar in one of his interviews to rediff.com. Mohanlal didn't take it up citing dates as the reason. Then the filmmaker approached Amitabh Bachchan [Images]. There were rumours that Bachchan would do the role, but that too fell through. Finally the role fell to the tall Tamil actor Raghuvaran, who has carved a niche for himself in Tamil cinema as a serious actor.

Sudeep turns distributor

Unlike actors of the earlier generation, the new kids in the Kannada film industry are turning into directors, producers and even distributors. The actor Sudeep, who enjoys a good popularity among the young crowd, became a producer and delivered quality products like Swathimuththu and My Autograph. The latter was such a huge hit that Sudeep's stock as a star skyrocketed. Now, Sudeep is turning into a distributor for major areas like Bangalore, Kolar and Tumkur districts for his next film Hubballi, produced and directed by Om Prakash Rao. 

"I have become a distributor for this film only because I fully trust the abilities of Rao as the director, and I am fully confident that we have tried to make an attractive product," said the actor. "I have not shied away from taking risks in my life and I am sure this new attempt will pay me full dividends."