The car may be small, but the money it could bring in for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale looks set to be big. Megastar Mohanlal will tomorrow hand over to the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) a Tata Nano that has been donated by Coffee Beans shop and Gallery 360 Degree here.

KBF president Bose Krishnamachari, who is a co-curator at the ongoing art show, will then start his art work on the low-cost four-wheeler, after which the vehicle would be sold at an open auction. Mohanlal will give the car keys to Krishnamachari at a 4.30 pm function in Marine Drive — in front of Coffee Beans, a KBF spokesperson said today.

Krishnamachari, a Malayali artist settled in Mumbai, will complete his ‘art car’ project in the coming days. The Nano will be put on display for a few days before being auctioned as part of a biennale fund-raising programme.

The name implies it all, dine royal at Travancore Court! This majestic hotel located at Warriam Road has a royal way of treating the customers and also serves great buffet for lunch and dinner. The range of non-vegetarian dishes is delectable and worth a try. We have almost all the 3-5 star hotels in the city serving buffet for lunch and dinner, but we have very few where the dishes, right from the starters to the deserts are yummy and lip-smacking. Sanjeev. K, Manager of Travancore Court says that the buffet is in demand than the a-la- carte hosted by the hotel. The buffet comes at a price of 366 plus tax. “We have 37 suite rooms, and also a swimming pool with gym. This adds to the splendour of the hotel”, says Sanjeev. But people, their dinner with the delicious spread of salads and dishes are beyond words. Travancore Court has been famous as ‘Superstar Mohanlal’s hotel’. But I must say that there is more to it. The ambience and mood of the hotel takes you back to the last century with the unique architectural walls and paintings. WOOOO!! Another reason to why you
need to check out the hotel. I would suggest this as the place where art meets some real good food!!

Veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher hasj ust tweeted that he is making way to Kochi along with veteran stars Jayaprada and Mohanlal, for shooting of a new Malayalam film, Pranayam. Pranayam, to be directed by Blessy is going to be Kher’s first Malayalam movie. Kochivibe is offering a prize to anyone who captures Anupam Kher on camera during his time in Kochi.

Anyone who manages to click a snap of Anupam Kher in Kochi can expect a prize from us!

The Lux Sandal Southscope Cine Awards 2010 celebrates cinematic talent from four south Indian film industries; Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada and will be held at HICC (Hyderabad International Convention Centre), Hyderabad on September 19. The awards is held honor those who helped to make South Indian Film awe-inspiring for all cinema-goers.

Mr. Moorthy Sreenivasulu, M.D. & Publisher, Southscope announced at a Press Meet that “We want to honour the originality and excellence of filmmakers, actors, technicians and artists across the four South Indian film industries viz. Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada.” Various Film Stars Rima Kallingal and Shammu also spoke on the occasion and disclosed the nominations from Malayalam film industry.
The theme of the awards is ‘South is One’.

The Awards ceremony will celebrate and honour cinematic talent in various categories such as:

Best Film – 4 languages

Best Actor (Male / Female) – 4 Languages

Best Director – 4 languages

Best Music Director – 4 languages

Best Singer (Male / Female) – 4 languages

Best Supporting Actor (Male / Female) – 4 languages

Best Comedian – 4 languages

Best Lyricist – 4 languages

Best Cinematographer – 4 languages

Sensational Debut – 4 languages

Lifetime Achievement

The impressive guest list that is to grace the Southscope Cine Awards 2010 comprises of the who’s who of South Indian cinema. Apart from the nominees & other stars,expect to see other mentionable’s like Chiranjeevi, Vikram, Suriya, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Nagarjuna, Puneet Rajkumar, Venkatesh, Ramcharan Tej, Allu Arjun, Ravi Teja, Shriya Saran, Reema Sen, Prabhu Deva, Nayanthara, Jyothika, Vijay, Simbu, Namita, Soundarya Rajnikanth, Upendra, Ramya & Pooja Gandhi.

As an interlude to the presentation ceremony, there will be electrifying performances by prominent film personalities. Genelia, Tamannah, Mamta Mohandas, Charmme, Sruthi Hassan, Reema Sen, Vijay, Yash, Arjun, Bharat and others. The current Indian Idol, Sriram will also be giving a performance.

Now a look at the nominations from the Malayalam film industry.

LUX SANDAL SOUTHSCOPE CINE AWARDS NOMINATIONS-MALAYALAM

Best Film
Pazhassi Raja
Bhramaram
Evidam Swargamanu
Paleri Manikyam

Best Director
Hariharan – Pazhassi Raja
Blessy – Bhramaram
Renjith – Paleri Manikyam
Ranjith Sankar – Passenger

Best Actor
Mammootty – Paleri Manikyam & Pazhassi Raja
Jayaram – Bhagyadevatha
Mohanlal – Bhramaram & Evidam Swargamanu
Prithviraj Sukumaran – Puthiyamugham

Best Actress
Swetha Menon – Paleri Manikyam
Kaniha – Bhagyadevatha
Mamta Mohandas – Passenger
Priyanka – Vilapangalkkapuram

Best Supporting Actor
Manoj K. Jayan – Pazhassi Raja
Sarathkumar – Pazhassi Raja
Nedumudi Venu – Bhagyadevatha
Pasupathy – Vairam

Best Supporting Actress
Padmapriya – Pazhassi Raja
KPAC Lalitha – Bhagyadevatha
Suhasini – Makante Achan & Vilapangalkkapuram
Nitya Menon – Kerala Cafe

Best Comedian
Jagadheesh – 2 Harihar Nagar
Salim Kumar – Chattambinadu
Suraj Venjaranmood – Ivar Vivahitharayal
Jagathy Sreekumar – Crazy Gopalan

Best Music Director
Vidyasagar – Neelathaamara
Deepak Dev – Puthiya Mukham
Ilaiyaraaja – Bhagyadevatha
Mohan Sitara – Bhramaram & Soofi Paranja Katha

Best Male Playback Singer
K. J. Yesudas – Adhi Usha Sandhya – Pazhassi Raja
Shankar Mahadevan – Pichavacha – Puthiya Mukham
V. Sreekumar – Anuraga Vilocha – Neelathaamara
Venugopal – Kuzaloothi – Bhramaram

Best Female Playback Singer
K. S. Chithra – Kunnathe Konna – Pazhassi Raja
Shreya Ghoshal – Chanthu Thottille – Banaras
Shweta Mohan – Priyanu Mathram – Robinhood
Sujatha Mohan – Muthe Muthe – Kanakanmani

Best Lyricist
O. N. V. Kurup – Kunnathe Konna – Pazhassi Raja
Anil Panachuran – Kuzhaloothum – Bhramaram
Kaithapram – Pichavacha – Puthiya Mukham
Sarathchandra Varma – Azhithira – Bhagyadevatha

Best Cinematography
Venu – Bhagyadevatha
P. Sukumar – Passenger
Ajayan Vincent – Bhramaram
Ramnath Shetty – Pazhassi Raja

Best of luck guys.

A day after Lalit Modi announced that IPL have dropped all the controversial qualifiers, Kochi’s chance to an IPL team have grown a lot. Currently people who are interested to bid for Kochi are

• Ashok Piramal Group
• Jaypee Group
• Rosy Blue India Pvt. Ltd
• Anchor Electricals
• Muthoot Pappachan Group
• Mohanlal & Priyadarshan

Experts say with these developments, Kochi is going to be one of the top bid teams. Another city that is predicted to win is Ahmedabad with Adani Enterprises, Sahara Group and ICICI bidding for the city. Adani group and Sahara is all set to “show them the money”. Days till March 21st (last day of submitting bids) will be very tensed and only when they open the bids the same day will our anxiety be put to rest. Till than we can just hope for the best because as of now Kochi could not have a better chance. We have our fingers crossed. GO KOCHI!!

Cochin’s IPL-Team dream is just not ready to die. Thanks to the stiff qualification criteria,Mohanlal-Priyadarshan and company who was set to bid for Kochi dropped out of the race. But Lalit Modi’s efforts to sell the 2 teams went belly up thanks to very strict qualifiers.

The decision was made only after 3 companies submitted bids while 10 companies bought tender documents. These unopened tenders were returned to the bidders. The revised Invitation To Tender (IIT) will be made available on March 9th and the bids will be open on March 21 in Chennai. The 2 qualifiers that companies had a problem with was

• The company should demonstrate a net worth of nearly Rs. 5000 crores.
• The company that wins the auction needs to pay $100 million as advance guarantee.

According to the revised rules the Rs. 5000 crores net worth clause has been removed and winners need to pay only $10 million as advance guarantee.

The Muthoot Papachan group (who was reportedly backing Mohanlal and Priyadarshan) initially had backed out from the race and now will be studying the new terms and will let the board decide if they will take part in the auction. So Kochi’s IPL dream is not over and there is hope.

(Wonder what made Lalit change his mind.. )

A lot of our hopes for a Kochi IPL team rested on Mohanlal’s and Priyadarshan’s shoulders. And that dont look too good. Well, its looking bad as the duo have backed out of the auction. They backed out after IPL changed the conditions and asked for Rs. 5000 crores as security deposit instead of the initial Rs. 300 crores. This did not go down well not only the filmy duo but also with the investors who was backing them. The status of the billionaire sheik from Abu Dhabi is not confirmed.

Experts predict that Ahmedabad will be picked up by the Adani group and either Nagpur or Pune by Videocon. Screw them all.  If Kochivibe makes billions and trillions of dollars we promise to get Kochi a ‘Kochivibe’ team!

The buzz of Kochi having its own Indian Premier League team has been around for quite sometime. Here is more information on the bidding process. The cities that have been offered as the home location for the franchises are Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Kanpur, Dharamsala, Vizag, Rajkot, Cuttack, Baroda, Cochin, Indore and Gwalior. The auction is scheduled to happen on March 9th 2010.

• This time the process of bidding for teams is extremely difficult unlike in 2008. Among the most contentious clauses is the requirement for the bidder to privide a bank guarantee equivalent to 100 per cent of the money that the winning bidder offers for the 10-year contract within seven days of winning the bid. Where as in 2008, the initial franchisees of the eight IPL teams had to provide only 10 per cent of their bids as bank guarantee.
• Bidders also need to have a net worth of $1 billion as a pre-requisite and offer a pre-bid bank guarantee of $100 million. In the 2008 auctions, prospective bidders paid a pre-bid deposit of Rs 20 crore.
• The minimum bid price has been fixed at a staggering $225 million (Rs 1,042 crore), compared to the base price of $50 million (over Rs 230 crore) when the first auctions were held in 2008.

Here is an interesting fact. A list of India’s 10 most affluent cities was recently published. Following is the list

1. New Delhi – Has IPL Team (Delhi Daredevils)
2. Bangalore – Has IPL Team (Royal Challengers)
3. Mumbai – Has IPL Team (Mumbai Indians)
4. Chennai – Has IPL Team (Chennai Super Kings)
5. Hyderabad – Has IPL Team (Deccan Chargers)
6. Kolkata – Has IPL Team (Kolkata Knight Riders)
7. Kochi – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
8. Pune – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010
9. Jaipur – Has IPL Team (Rajasthan Royals)
10. Ahmedabad – One of the home locations thats on offer in 2010

7 out of the 10 most affluent cities in the list, have an IPL team. All 6 cities above Kochi has an IPL team. All 3 cities that dont have an IPL team are on offer as a home location for the auction on March 9th.

Mohanlal and Priyadarshan has shown interest in bidding. Also Muthoot Pappachan Group is said to have making efforts for a Kochi team by partnering with Mohanlal and Priyadarshan. Also there are reports that Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan is interested in picking up a team. Sheiks and Malayalees has been sharing a very good bond from the past couple of decades . Keeping that in mind, we hope he bids for Kochi too . There are reports that YusufAli MA, M.D of EMKE group and person behind LULU group (who is also building India’s biggest mall in Kochi) is keen on a Kochi team. As per some reports Salman Khan is keen on bidding for an IPL team and is interested either in Kochi or Nagpur.

Making this entry on Kochivibe has made us dizzy. Especially the Rupees and Dollars part . We hope that Kochi is one of the 2 lucky cities to get an IPL team. We are amused to see “Dharmsalsa” as one of the cities up for grabs. That just DONT sound like one of the cities that would have an IPL team (sorry Dharmsalians). Kochi would make a better team anyday! .  Fingers crossed for March 9th.!

Tare Zameen par.
Veteran actors Mammootty, Mohanlal and ompuri will share the stage of DC Book’s Book fair inaguration today in kochi. Ompuri will be the chief guest. His wife, writer Nanditha Ompuri also will be an attraction on the stage. Mammootty with Mohanlal will be with them to enrich the cultural event. The Function will start at 6.30 PM at Marine Drive.

The Book fair will end on Feb. 12.

The famous duo from Boing Boing is at it again.! But not on the silver screen this time, but through the play ‘Chayamukhi’ that will be staged at JTPAC on 17-October-2009.

Play Chayamukhi based on the interaction between Bhima and Keechaka, is making journeys of their own. The play opens with Bhima’s monologue, which starts with the line: “How much more distance to be covered?” Thus begins his journey, in search of his true love in life – only to realise that his love was never returned.The play is a fusion of the Mahabharata and the present world and the entire story is told and viewed through the eyes of three petty thieves who venture into the forest and witness certain events depicted in Mahabharata.Mohanlal played the role of Bheema in this Mahabaratham based drama.

Produced by actor Mukesh’s Kalidasa Visual Magic, the story revolves around the Great epic Mahabharath. Chayamukhi is written and directed by Prasanth Narayanan ,a versatile artist with an ever probing intellect ,a talented writer and a crazy director,Chayamukhi takes the viewer to the realms and thoughts never traversed before.For him, Keechaka is a poet and lover, who loves flowers and celebrates the winter festival to the fullest. Even Bhima regrets killing him, though he does so only because Keechaka deviated from accepted norms of the society. Mukesh plays the role of the kind man in this play. Before came to the stage, Mohanlal and his crew have rehearsed for sixty days to present the drama perfectly.