Kamal and Mohan Lal teams up

The infamous Kandahar Airport hijack case is all set to be made into a film with Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan playing the lead roles. Eight years ago this incident made it to the headlines when the Indian Airlines flight that took off from Delhi was hijacked by terrorists. The hijacked flight landed in Amritsar, Dubai and Lahore before it was finally grounded in the Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan. This entire hijack episode will be made into a film by director Major Ravi. The director, incidentally, was one of the officers who investigated the case. Major Ravi, who had earlier directed the Malayalam movie Keerthi Chakra, is known for directing films based on his real life experiences. Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal will don the role of commandos trying to save the passengers. The film will be made both in Tamil as well as Malayalam. Talks have been going on between the parties involved for sometime now. Kamal and Mohanlal who were busy with their respective projects were not able to commit to the movie. But it seems finally things are settling down with the Superstars agreeing to come together on the project. A final official announcement is expected soon.

Adebayor advice to Arsenal

The Gunners' slick passing game was the talk of England during the first half of last season, as a young, exciting squad driven by Cesc Fabregas defied expectations and set the pace in the title race.

It all went south during the latter part of the campaign, however, as the words 'young' and 'exciting' were replaced by 'inexperienced' and the Londoners' attractive style drew criticism rather than praise.

For many believed Arsene Wenger's men were more concerned with playing pretty football than earning results, as they finished the term trophyless after leading the Premier League in February.

And Adebayor admitted that he and his team-mates need to add the gritty, win-at-all-costs element to their repertoire if they are to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea."A lot of people talk about us and say we play good football. Good football is good, but we didn't win anything and you play to win," he said in The Independent.

"What we are going to keep in our heads is that playing football is good but sometimes you have to be tough on the pitch to win a game. We have learnt a lot of things. Sometimes you have to be dirty to win some games. You need to do that because it is part of football."Adebayor opened his goal tally earlier this week when he netted in Arsenal's 2-0 victory over FC Twente in their Champions League qualifier.

It was a scrappy win, to say the least, but the Togolese striker insisted that is exactly the way his side must learn to play."Against Twente we didn't play good football and certainly didn't play our best but we won 2-0 and that's what it's all about," he added.

"We kept going and kept passing it. Sometimes you have to forget about trying to play beautiful football and just make sure you win the game. That is the important thing, although we have to remember the passing and movement that we want to do."

Nevertheless, the Gunners will be hoping for a significantly more eye-catching performance in their Premier League opener against West Bromwich Albion this weekend.

Milan enters Alonso bid

Alonso's future has been up in the air all summer long, as the Reds' pursuit of Gareth Barry was expected to signal the end of the Spaniard's stay at Anfield.Indeed, the Basque playmaker seemed certain to make the switch to Juventus before joining up with la Seleccion for their successful EURO 2008 campaign, but that move collapsed after the clubs failed to agree a fee.

And reports from England suggest that Juve's rivals, Milan, are now set to make a move for the 26-year-old.The Rossoneri know Alonso's qualities all too well, having come up against the former Real Sociedad man in two Champions League finals.Carlo Ancelotti's squad already boasts an abundance of midfield talent with the likes of Mathieu Flamini, Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo - the latter of whom is stylistically quite similar to Alonso.

Furthermore, the Merseyside club are now very unlikely to sell the crafty centre-man after calling off their pursuit of Barry, whose £18million price-tag proved too steep.Hence, this link can perhaps be attributed to the fact Alonso is cup-tied after playing in Liverpool's Champions League qualifier against Standard Liege, thus diminishing his value in the eyes of Arsenal, Internazionale, et al. Milan, however, are in the UEFA Cup, meaning the player would still be able to feature in European competition if he move to il Diavolo.But the switch remains a very remote possibility, and the San Siro club would have to fork out at least £15million to land their man.

Sasikumar Flies High

It is no easy task to recreate the magic of 1980s. 'Subramaniapuram', a retro classic, by Sasi Kumar was bang on target. He managed to recreate the lifestyle and culture of the 1980s wonderfully well.Says the director, 'I watched family marriage videos of the period where movie posters were seen during the processions. In my old house in Madurai my family had still kept the wooden TV cabinet with the shutter, typical of that period. So I could use that too. I looked around extensively for props. I searched the net for advertisements of the period. That's how all the detailing fell in place.'He is gearing up to act for his next venture 'Nadodigal', which is to be directed by Samuthirakani. Meanwhile he has reportedly decided not to act in his next directorial venture which is slated to begin early next year. 'I would prefer to direct', he said.

Kuyt Not happy with Liverpool Performance

Liverpool has been out form these days. Top performer of Liverpool, Dirk Kuyt has raised voice and said that liverpool is not performing well in these days.Liverpool managed to limp across the finish line after a battering in Belgium but still emerged without a scratch thanks to some grand guarding of the nets by Spanish stopper Pepe Reina.A pot that starts at £10million and could rise to £20million awaits the victors in the second leg at Anfield and Netherlands international claims that if Liverpool are to succeed, they will need to get their act together.Reflecting on the one positive from the game, Kuyt said: "The good thing was a clean sheet and that will give us the edge for the second leg." Kuyt, who has a prolific goal-scoring record for previous club Feyenoord, added: "We have big games coming up. One of those is Sunderland, we must not play like this again. We are looking forward to Saturday and the first league game to show who we are and what we are."He concluded: "As for the Champions League, fortunately we are still in the tie, but we have to show better form than. We need to score, we have to play better and we will. Please share this info to all your friends.

Ocher studios for Marmayogi

Hi fans,
News about Marmayogi has been itching now adays. Its the dream movie of Kamal Hasan. many predict that Marmayogi will be the story of the Kamal Hasan's breath Marhudhanayagam.For Marmayogi, Kamal Haasan has decided to switch from Pyramid Saimira to Soundarya Rajinikanth’s Ocher-Warner productions. As reported earlier Soundarya is in the process of producing films in collaboration with WarnerBros. Most recently, they have reportedly paid a huge advance to Jayam and Raja Ravi for an upcoming film. Kamal is reported to have returned the advance he took from Pyramid Saimira and is intiatiating talks with Ocher Studios to produce his next historical magnum opus. The reason sited is that Pyramid were reluctant to go as high as 150 crores for Marmayogi’s budget. They were more comfortable with 100. Kamal has apparently, as a first step, sent the entire script of Marmayogi to Warner Bros in the U.S. so that they would get an idea of the kind of production he has in mind for this period epic. The only question now is: will Warner Bros go for it?

Singh is king

The Indian Films-Studio 18 released Singh Is Kinng took home the box-office gold internationally, emerging as the biggest Bollywood title of 2008 and the numero uno in the career of its protagonist and superstar Akshay Kumar. (Interestingly, Kumar's all-time No.2 performer, Welcome, was also released by Studio 18 in December 2007.)

In addition to the key overseas markets, US/Canada, UK and UAE, Singh Is Kinng saw a wide day-and-date release by Studio 18 in Trinidad & Tobago, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Mauritius, Fiji, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa, East Africa, West Africa, Australia and New Zealand, among other countries.

Distributed on 275 prints in these markets, Singh Is Kinng mopped up more than INR 12 cr (approx. US$ 3 million) just in its opening weekend.

In North America, on 112 prints (including 28 in Canada - the widest release for a Bollywood film ever), Singh... popped open to a thunderous response ringing up an estimated $1.2 million.

In the UK & Ireland, on 70 prints, it grossed £62,533 on its previews and notched a solid £430,748 over the weekend, taking its cum. to a gigantic £493,281 and placing it at No.7 in the UK Top 10 chart. In terms of per theatre average for the weekend, Singh Is Kinng devoured the prevailing Hollywood blockbusters in the UK, much the same as the US, where it was ranked at No.15.

In the Middle East, on 33 prints, the gross was in excess of 2.02 million AED.

Singh Is Kinng, produced by Vipul Shah's Blockbuster Movies, features the hit duo, Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, ably supported by Neha Dhupia, Om Puri, Kirron Kher, Sonu Sood, Javed Jaffrey and others. It features a much-hyped collaboration on the title track with legendary rapper, Snoop Doggy Dogg.

After the super success of Jab We Met, Welcome & now Singh Is Kinng, Indian Films - Studio 18 has an impressive slate of international releases in 2008, which include Sanjay Gadhvi's Kidnap, starring Sanjay Dutt and Imraan Khan, Rohit Shetty's Golmaal Returns featuring Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Celina Jaitly and Tusshar Kapoor, and Anil Kapoor Productions' Shortkut, toplining Akshaye Khanna, Amrita Rao and Arshad Warsi.

Man Utd is the best team in the world

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) regularly updates a club world ranking throughout the season, using a complex study of statistics.These include the results of 12 months of continental and intercontinental competitions, domestic league matches, as well as other calculations.
Manchester United remain the number one ranked team in the world following their recent Champions League victory in May.

Chelsea is as good as 1989 Liverpool-Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson has previously suggested, somewhat disparagingly, that the current Chelsea side are too old to improve, and now in reiterating that view he has added that they remind him of Liverpool just before the Reds went into decline after dominating English football in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ferguson said: "I don't see any change in Chelsea. That is, to me they don't look as if they are going to find acres of improvement, simply because they are a very experienced team.

“But that experienced team can easily win the league because it's not exactly disintegrating. They are at their very peak, I would think, as a team.

“So it's much like the Liverpool team of 1989. Exactly that same format of experience of that Liverpool team."

The Sunday Telegraph reported that when Ferguson was reminded that Liverpool have never fully recovered from that point, he replied: "I know. It was a very experienced team but that's the difficulty of football clubs.”

Ferguson’s observation might have been more apt if he’d compared Chelsea with the Liverpool side of 1990. Although in the 1988-89 season - exactly 20 years ago - the Reds were pipped to the title by Arsenal at Anfield in that never-to-be-forgotten last-day epic when Michael Thomas snatched the championship from their grasp in injury-time with the Gunners’ decisive second goal, Liverpool bounced back to claim their 18^th (and last) title the following season - 1989-90.

Neville Hails Tevez

hi friends,

I am a manchester united fan. So I love all the info regarding Man Utd. In the recent Match against Pompey,Tevez was the stand-out player in a 0-0 draw and was involved throughout the 90 minutes and then converted from the spot in the penalty shoot-out to secure United’s second Community Shield in a row at Wembley.With both Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo missing from the forward line, the Argentine was full of running and caused Pompey centre-backs Distin and Campbell problems all afternoon.The former Boca Juniors hit-man was denied a clear penalty in the first half after Hermann Hreidarsson grabbed his ankle in the area. He reacted angrily and was fortunate not to see a card for his troubles from referee Peter Walton.

"I didn't see Carlos' reaction," admitted Neville, "but I imagine it would have been one of frustration."It looked like it should have been a penalty from where I was. If a player doesn't get the decision that he wants, then the emotion of the game and the importance of it means they are going to react" he explained."Today he caused Portsmouth a lot of problems and maybe could have had one or two goals. He was deservedly the match sponsor's man of the match."As for me, it was fantastic, just to get a game - a competitive game - under my belt. It's probably the most prestigious pre-season game you can play in. After being out for so long, I was just happy being out there with the lads and being part of it again."Hopefully this season I can contribute in some way and earn my corn" Neville concluded. Hope this kind of forms continues for the Man Utd.

It was a great day for Ronaldinho

Hi fans,
There is no doubt that Ronaldinho is still the best player in the world after the clash with the minnows New zealand. Ronaldinho has just now joined ACmilan. But In the olympics,New Zealand may be minnows, but the AC Milan attacker was no less pleased for his two-goal haul."It's a special day," he told Reuters in Qinhuangdao.On why it was special he added, "Because of everything which has happened, because of my performance, because we qualified."Praising the near-45,000 crowd at the Shenyang Olympic Stadium, he added, "The atmosphere here is great and that helps a lot."According to the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ronaldinho was too emotional to add further remarks.Midfielder Lucas chimed in, "Ronaldinho deserves it, he's a great player and a great person." Hope this form will continue.

Zanneti in fitness race

Juventus have been preparing for their historic return to the Champions League after the Calciopoli scandal as they gear up to face Slovakian side Artemedia Bratislava later this week in Turin.

Coach Claudio Ranieri will be eager to see his side qualify for the group stage and make a big impression in the competition. To this end he has received some good news in that Vincenzo Iaquinta, Christian Molinaro, Jonathan Zebina, and Zdenek Grygera have returned to training with the squad.

However, there are some slight worries for the Bianconeri as Zanetti and Marchinno picked up slight muscle strains. Their injuries are not though to be serious, and both should be available to take part in Juventus' first official match of the season.

Wednesday evening will be a significant achievement for Juventus after they came in 3rd place last season (after just returning from Serie B) to qualify for Europe's premier competition. Their preseason preparations have been going well so far, and Juve recently played out an entertaining goalless draw at Old Trafford with Manchester United.

Italian internationals Alessandro Del Piero, Giorgio Chiellini, and Mauro Camorenesi all looked to be in fine form during that match and will be expected to make a significant impact again. It will also be a chance for Juve fans to see who Ranieri's possible first choice attackers will be with Del Piero, Iaquinta, Trezeguet, and Amauri all vying for the two starting spots.