A Week Off
Another vacation, another break... Off on a weeklong trip to the East Coast. Will be back next Sunday or Monday.
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Balaji's Thots
On movies, books, music, technology, family, humor, travel and everything in between
Saturday, October 13, 2007
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Balaji Balasubramaniam, a California-resident Tamil Indian with a few, mostly unimportant, things on his mind.bbalaji [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
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17 Comments:
i wanted to hear ppl's thoughts on the padmapriya issue. i thought that this was common in the cine industry. i do not approve of it, nor do i even condone it. in fact, i am happy that she stood up for her right. here's my take on this- a director-actor relationship has to be a very symbiotic one. i've heard stories of directors asking for umpteen number of takes and pushing the limits of actors; i would say, "anything for the sake of creativity" but a big NO to anything thats outside of the work u r doing...
Balaji-
hope to see some nice fall pictures when you return....
Ram, I can't agree with you more. Gone are the days of Bharathiraja & Balachandar when slapping was the trend to get actresses to emote. If Samy had gone after dolls like Trisha, Nayantara and Shreya and claimed that they couldn't act, he had a minute chance of convincing the Nadigar Sangam... but Padmapriya?
Agreed that awards don't necessarily measure the true capacity or ability of any actress, but Padmapriya hasn't even done one traditional 'doll' role in Tamil Cinema yet.
Samy should get his eyes and brain checked (since he can't assess a good actress from a bad one).. after all, he has a whole year ahead of him to do just that! :-) ;-)
sandya, modhara kaiyyaala kottu vaangardhu nallathu thaan...aana, thangathaye orasi paathutaare saamy...ey ayya saami, ada nee TC-a kaami!
btw, the reason for my pariyals also has to do with the fact that padmapriya was absolutely fantastic as banu, in sathum podaathay. what a wonderfully nuanced performance. i loved her performance in the coffee shop scene where she orders a milkshake with a straw...
How does it matter if Padmapriya is a good actress or not? Come on, if Trisha was slapped would you guys argue that it is somewhat OK, just because she is an inferior actress?
If this had happened elsewhere the director would have been sued. BR and KB got away with it probably because they worked with newcomers who were afraid to report them since they were big names or there was no system to do the same, but they were flat out wrong and should have been sued.I dont care how great they were or how valid the reasons were for them getting angry. This is simply wrong. This is not grade school, these guys/girls are grown up adults.Come on!
Nowadays actresses are thankfully more aware, bold and and there are unions that come to their rescue. I think Samy is full of BS. He was probably upset for some other reason(callsheet problem or maybe he even made some advances and was rejected) and used bad acting as a convenient excuse. And on TV he had the gall to say that Padmapriya was a psycho. Earlier he seemed to have had problems with Sangeetha as well.
Wonder how many junior actresses and extras are treated this way. Maybe even worse. Obviously they have to take it silently.This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Tamil film industry(for that matter any film industry in India) is half full of filth.
Even that third rate loser KS Ravikumar is known to hurl choicest abuses towards small actors/technicians if they dont get it right. It seems Kamal had to interfere and ask him to not to use certain words in dasavathaaram shoot(although Kamal might be doing it himself). The director Manobala who is doing comedy roles these days proudly declared on TV that he has been at the receiving end of KSR"s abuse several times. This lack of professionalism and poor work culture is what keeps most educated people away from the film industry.I have also heard of such treatments meted out to co-actors by the likes of YGM, SV sekhar when they do drams shows.The sad thing is this kind of treatment is taken for granted and no one bothers to complain for fear of losing their jobs or othe reasons. And most people including the top shots of the industry are guilty of this.
Padmapriya has set a good precedent by taking this to the unions and not being mum about it.
Vijay, I speak for myself & Ram when I say this. This is purely not a question of being a good actress or not, but the fact that Samy had his screws loose enough to claim that Padmapriya was a 'bad' actress that got to both of us.
Need I point to you, that I am a woman myself (not a man claiming to write in the internet with a woman's name!) and would probably be the last person on this planet to propagate that PP or Trisha or any other actress/woman be slapped for her lack of talent purely based on her director's screw loose comments.
For that matter, I've heard that worse language and behavior thrown at Kate Winslet & Leonardo DeCaprio during the making of the Titanic, made by James Cameron. Whether it is KB or BR or someone full of hot air like JC, it's the same the world around (we'll all agree on that!).
The world is listening ONLY because a qualified and educated professional like Padmapriya has publicly made allegations. You can't argue that lots of folks wouldn't believe a Sangeetha even if she had begged and pleaded her case against Samy a couple of years back... It's unfortunate, but our own cliches and stereotypes for and against educated and 'acting' heroines gets played out when such allegations come out in public.
Ellaam kaalam seiyum kolam! :-( I don't know if you saw PP's interview on Rediff. It looks like she put up with a lot of crap before getting slapped. The slap was indeed the last straw!
(although Kamal might be doing it himself) - Vijay, one of my friend's friend happened to be in the sets of Aalavandhaan and looks like Kamal treats everybody like shit, though there did not seem to be any bias as far as gender is concerned. Apparently, he uses the filthiest of languages (particularly when the folks do their regular pujas at the sets) and practically nobody in the sets (except Suresh Krishna) could even approach him.
"but the fact that Samy had his screws loose enough to claim that Padmapriya was a 'bad' actress that got to both of us. "
Once again you seem to have gotten angry for the wrong reason. So the fact that Samy claimed that PP was a bad actress seem to have irked you more than the fact that he slapped PP. He was obviously bullshitting when he said that PP was not emoting well. But the fact that he slapped her should have irked you more in the first place, being a woman and all
"The world is listening ONLY because a qualified and educated professional like Padmapriya has publicly made allegations."
No the world is listening because this really happened before the public and there were lots of witnesses and the director did not deny it. If this had happened in a hotel room with the director and actress coming out with different versions then there might be more skepticism, irrespective of the fact that Padmapriya is a good actress or educated
"It's unfortunate, but our own cliches and stereotypes for and against educated and 'acting' heroines gets played out when such allegations come out in public."
I dont understand what you mean by this. My reaction would have been the same if the actress in question was Padmapriya or Namitha or Kovai Sarala as long as there was evidence that something like this really happened, period
filbert, it is sad but that kind of behaviour is taken for granted. I wouldnt be surprised if what you said is completely true.
Vijay,
we get your point but you are arguing for the sake of arguing now, reading Sandya's point I inferred that she was picking on the justification Samy gave and not whether what he did was right or wrong. In every bodies eyes including that assole (Samy) knows what he did was wrong.
It came out in public because she was bold enough get it out and not because it happened it public, nor that she is educated....if the victim doesn't complain nobody will.
how does the reason matter here if the effect is same which might change the cause for future :-)
(referring to "Once again you seem to have gotten angry for the wrong reason")
OK how different is it from a corporate point of view. How many times have you heard that senior mgmt went their anger on jr's, CEO's to their vp's, or pa's...well fortunately it all settles at verbal (which is bad enough), but physical abuse is the limit in any established industry....
Those of us hoping for Prashanth's comeback, we betta go hide .........after looking at his trailer for Pulan Visarani II.....
http://www.cinefundas.com/trailers/pulanvisaranai-tamil-movie-trailer.html
babu, my point is a valid one. Sorry if you think I am arguing just for the heck of it.Thats your opinion. I dont care if Samy said PP is a bad actress or not because everyone knows that is BS and it is clearly established a lie. The main issue here about which everyone should be upset is the treatment meted out to such an actress, not what the actress was called by the director.That is a secondary issue.
In fact,PP had also alleged that the director had misbehaved with her and had made advances and later denied it.
"how does the reason matter here if the effect is same which might change the cause for future :-)"
the reason does matter. If you get angry for the wrong reason, you are bound to fight for the wrong cause :-) As simple as that.
I agree with Vijay :)
"you are bound to fight for the wrong cause"
Good one :-)
reminds me of Swami Dayananda Saraswati when he replied to ppl who asked him "I'm sometimes a positive thinker, and other times negative thinker"..he said dun worry about +ve and -ve, as long as you think, its good....
Likewise as long as u fight for the same effect, cause doesn't matter.....I reckon I am arguing for the heck of it now :-D
daimn this blogosphere
prin, wasn't really waiting for Prashanth's "comeback" with bated breath, but the promo didn't seem too bad. Not particularly good, but not too bad either.
Saw the last 10-15 mins of 'Coffee with Anu' last week. Arjun and Arun Vijay/Kumar. Arjun was quite funny.
One of the guests who praised Arun was Prashanth. He said something to the effect of "Arun romba nalla stunts pannuvaaru. Indha split ellam, enakku aduthu avardhaan pannuvaaru"! I was ROTFLMAO. The fact that Action King was there, and Prashanth was ranking himself #1 and Arun Vijay #2 in action sequences.
Prashanth to me seems like that guy with an inferiority complex, who tries to talk himself out of it by talking big! Well, if he doesn't have an inferiority complex, he should ;-)
btw, I said Arjun was funny, but didn't elaborate. Anu was asking him about scary stunts he had done.
He mentioned he had done a few. Then said something like "Well, whether I want to do it or not, the people around you force you to do it. They will talk to each other 'Hey, he's the action king, he can do it'. Once they say that, and with heroine around and all, I have no choice but to do it". The way he said it, and his expression when he said this ... quite funny.
And is it just me, or has Arjun not aged at all? He must be early-40s, right? Arun Vijay looked older.
vijay, i think sandya and ram feel as strongly about this as u. slapping PP was idiotic and cannot be condoned. i think his statement that she is a bad actress stood out because it is so ridiculous. so when they said "it got to me", they just meant that it was laughably bad and not that they didn't get agitated at what samy actually did :)
mitr, do take a look at the pics :)
prakash, "if he doesn't have an inferiority complex, he should ;-)" - that was hilarious :)
and i do agree that arjun doesnt seem to have aged at all. i think i mentioned that in the 'marudhamalai' review too :)
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