Madhavan signs two Azhagiri films

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Madhavan may be taking a sabbatical and going for a bike ride all over Europe soon but he has signed two big films in Tamil. Incidentally both are by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies.

The first film is Vettai to be directed by N Linguswamy where Maddy has a parallel role along with Arya in the film.

Arya is currently on a high with two of his films -- Boss (E) Bhaskaran and Madrasapattinam hitting the bull's eye while Madhavan has become a national star with the stupendous success of 3 Idiots. Madhavan is acting in a Lingusamy film after their successful Run many years ago. The female leads have not yet been finalised

Athirshtasaali to be directed by Vikram K Kumar of Yaavarum Nalam fame is the next project. Vikram and Madhavan had joined hands for Yaavarum Nalam, which was a big success. The same combination will be seen again.

"This is not going to be a horror film like their last work, this would be a light hearted romantic film with a key twist to the plot. The female lead for the film has not yet been finalised. The casting has just started and Vikram is busy locking the script. This would be a wonderful project for us as this script opens a door for us to step into another genre. The project is all set to take off in 2011," Azhagiri said in a statement.

Every actor who got a chance to share screen space with super star Rajnikanth in Endhiran is on a high. One such young man is Raaghav.

"My hairstyle, look, costume and performance in the film have been well appreciated. Director Shankar and super star Rajnikanth encouraged me a lot and praised my work. After the scene where I play loud music in the house, the super star applauded and hugged me which will always be a very precious memory for me. Working with stunt choreographer Peter Hein master along with a group of International stunt artistes from France and Vietnam in the fight sequence set inside an electric train in Pune was a once in a lifetime opportunity," the actor says.

The 39 Steps is an award-winning play that has a successful run on Broadway and West End. It has four actors playing 140 roles in over one and a half hours! The film's serious spy story is played mainly for laughs, and the script is full of allusions to other Hitchcock films, including Rear Window and Psycho.

Radhika Sarathkumar, the queen of Tamil Television will venture into theatre with The 39 Steps.  Her Raadan Media Works has tied up with the Chennai-based Evam (started by Tamil film actor Karthik Kumar and Sunil Vishnu) to produce The 39th Steps.

Radhika said: "The 39 Steps is an absolute masterpiece of visual humour. The production is also planning to bring in many foreign plays like this including The Lion King. I have noticed that theatre scene is doing extremely well in the north compared to south. So, I wanted to bring the culture down south"

It is but natural for Radhika to be a part of theatre as she is the daughter of well known theatre personality, late actor M R Radha

The play premieres in Chennai at the Sir Mutha VenkataSubbaRao Concert Hall on October 29 at 7:30 pm, followed by four more shows on the 30th and 31st at 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm, respectively.