Bhagyashri and her makeup woe..

Bhagyashri is playing the role of Suniel Shetty’s wife. She is the poor poverty stricken woman who is living under the poverty line. Naturally, her look has to be totally de-glam. For her shoot in Khandala, the actress turned up for her shoot with slight makeup and dull lipstick. And this made the producer and director see red. “They were so irritated that I had put make-up. I tried to explain that it was only to subdue my complexion and fresh look, but they wouldn’t listen. So I went and removed my make-up. Guess what, when they saw me they again told me to put the makeup back because in no way was I looking under nourished and unhappy woman. My complexion is naturally glowing. So it took me another half an hour to put all the goo back and dull my face,” laughs this pretty actress. Even her cotton sari was crumpled further to give her the dismal look.

Red Alert is the true story of Narsimha, a farm labourer, who desperately needed money to fund the education of his children. He finds himself in the midst of Naxalites where his mission becomes a mere subset of a greater cause that the militant’s pursue.

‘Red Alert – The War Within’ is produced by T.P Aggarwal and Rahul Aggarwal under the banner of Star Entertainments Pvt. Ltd. The film is directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, written by Aruna Raje, K. Rajkumar is the Director of Photography and Executive producer is George F Cameron. Creative of the film are done by Brainstorm.

‘Red Alert- The War Within’ stars Suniel Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharker, Seema Biswas, Makrand Deshpande, Bhagyashree, Ashish Vidyarthi, Ehsaan Khan, Suneel Sinha with Gulshan Grover, Naseeruddin Shah and Vinod Khanna.

Suniel Shetty to work in film on Maoists in “Red Alert”

Actor-producer Suniel Shetty is all set to play a real life character in “Red Alert-The War Within” about the Maoist movement in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.
Suniel plays the central character of Narasimha, a farm labourer who needs money to fund the education of his children. He finds himself in the midst of Maoists and his mission becomes a mere subset of a greater cause that the militants pursue.
“With his personality, Suniel fits into the character so well that no other actor can fit the bill. The role is dynamic and Suniel has the potential to portray it and I am quite sure he will win a national award for the same,” said Gulshan Grover, who also plays an important role in the film, at the launch function here Monday.
To be directed by Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and produced by T.P. Aggarwal and Rahul Aggarwal of Star Entertainment Pvt Ltd, the film is based on a true story.
Eminent filmmaker Aruna Raje, who is known for her realistic films like “Shaque”, “Gehrayee”, “Sitam”, “Rihaee”, “Bhairavi” and more recently “Tum”, has written the script.
“Ananth came with the subject and requested me to write a script. The subject interested me so much that I agreed immediately. Since, it is based on a real life incident, we had to do a lot of research to provide a feel of reality to the script,” said Raje.
Naseeruddin Shah, Vinod Khanna, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharkar, Bhagyashree, Ashish Vidyarthi and Makrand Deshpande will also be seen in the film, which will be made at a budget of Rs.100 million.
It will go to floors in a 40-day schedule from May 19 and will be released sometime in October 2008, said the director.

Does a mother distinguish between her children: Sameera Reddy

Sameera Reddy is all set to prove herself as a versatile actress after recent glamorous roles in Race and One Two Three. She is again returning to the serious image with Star Entertainments Red Alert the War Within. Her first brush with alternate cinema was Kaalpurush with renowned Bengali film director Buddhadeb Dasgupta.
Q. What is Red Alert all about?
A. It’s a very serious film which talks about the Naxalite problem. We don’t try to blame either the government or the militants. Rather, we hope to find a solution to this major internal security issue.
Q. Were you aware of this problem before hand?
A. No, we people living in metros have no idea about the seriousness of this issue. Even I was equally clueless about this matter. We would read in the papers that there is some violence, but never really bothered to find out more. Red Alert wants the whole country to get up and face this growing menace.
Q. Something about your character…
A. I play Laxmi, a young girl, who goes to the police station and there the cops, instead of helping her, rape her. This trauma completely shatters her faith in the system. We aim to show that people who take up arms against the state sometime have no other option. They are in such a state of mind that when anybody gives them a gun and says kill, they
just do it. But later on my character does realize the wrongness of her ways, but by then it's too late.
Q. Does this mean you are just justifying violence?
A. No amount of provocation can just be violence. It's just that we need to understand why they are doing it.
Q. You seem to be happy doing serious cinema.
A. Yes, Buddha Babu has opened a brand new door for me. Even in this movie, I will be totally glamorous, dressed like a man. This hard hitting film does not warrant any other element. The best part of the new actress in me is that I tried to think a lot as my dumb character in Race as well. Most other actresses would not have done that.
Q. What would the USP of Red Alert be?
A. We not only have well written characters but equally good actors like Suneil Shetty, Nassurdin Shah and Vinod Khanna. Many times a good film fails due to absence of good actors to enact them.
Q. But you will continue to do glam roles?
A. Yes, why not!
Q. But which do you prefer?
A. Does a mother distinguish between her 2 children?
Q. Which yesteryear actress do you take inspiration from?
A. I really look up to Smita Patil. She never did much glamorous roles but yet I saw the oomph element in her. Even Sridevi played both serious and commercial roles quite well.
Q. After Kalpurush, what is next in regional cinema?
A. Yes, this national award winning film has finally released. Now I am doing one more Bong film titled Voyeur. It shows how much the camera has invaded our lives, not only of the celebs but targeting lay people as well. We need to work out a line between public and private life. I am also doing a Tamil film. My next Hindi project would be an animation film Mahayodha Ram. But among all these, Red Alert will be the first to be released.

Vinod Khanna plays a Naxalite Kobad Ghandy like character in RED ALERT

Ananth Mahadevan, the director of RED ALERT- The War within says, “The film couldn’t have been more timely. It reflects today’s headlines. Viewers might also find shades of Kobad Ghandy in one of the film’s characters played by Vinod Khanna.”
According to director Ananth Mahadevan, Vinod Khanna’s actors’ integrity is brought to the fore in RED ALERT-the war within.
Though in real life he belongs to the establishment, in reel life in RED ALERT–the War Within, he plays an anti establishment, intellectual ideologue, a left wing Maoist.
He is actually condemning the government….he is well read, well versed with issues, an intellectual, who does not raise the gun…but his weapon is motivation and strategizing for the Naxal movement to be ruthless organization to achieve their ultimate goal.
Ananth Mahadevan had earlier worked with Vinod Khanna in the film CHANDNI, but unlike that film, for RED ALERT, Vinod Khanna performance is more subdued, with different mannerism and body language to get into the character of the intellectual cold blooded Maoist.
Vinod Khanna’s character as an ultra left revolutionary mouths volatile dialogues like, “The government is a terrorist…We do not resort to violence…We resort to counter-violence…This is a war….it doesn’t matter whether we win or loose…what matter is our being there”
“RED ALERT-the war within, produced by T P Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal, Star Entertainment, is new age cinema based on realism, on issues that the country has to reflect and answer. It is a true story borne out of on today’s headlines. A country at war with itself…India’s little understood, most misunderstood war.”

Beware Mahadevan

It's hot, it's news and it's damn serious this time! It's the pick of the season and no tourist is getting chance to wander in the heaven called Khandala. The reason is the Red Alert infused in the area. Believe it or not the most of the area has become conspicuous by the absence of tourists. And the owners of hotels and restaurants of the area are forcing their days through unattended before experience. Why?
The simple reason is it's the Red Alert that has captured maximum number of rooms in Khandala. Well, well, you must be getting too confused. Actually, it's all about Ananth Narayan Mahadevan and his gang shooting for the film Red Alert — the War Within in Khandala.
The director seems quite happy looking at the Khandala hotels being invaded by his crew. "Initially the hotels refused to give us rooms because they are not giving discount due to the season. But we would plead with them only to give 2 rooms. After a day we would again go begging for two more rooms for the fighters and then next day for 2 more. Slowly we have most of hotels with us. And they are so happy that we are wrapping up by this weekend," smiles Ananth Mahadevan.
The scenario is the same for last 23 days during which Mahadevan is busy canning his Alert with Suneil Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Ayesha Dharkar, Seema Biswas, Markand Deshpande and others in and around the area of Khandala. Throughout all these days visitors are finding it quite difficult to have rooms for them to stay in Khandala and hotel owners have no option than to think the season will end up in this way only.
Though the Red Alert in Khandala is a reason for smile to Mahadevan but he may look at the other side of the matter also. People may not be too happy with this kinda shooting invasion and they may also think about announcing red alert in cinemas after the film gets released. After all if money can beget money, why can't alert beget an alert? Do you still have a reason to smile Mahadevan?

Red Alert - the War within appreciated

Anant Mahadevan is more than a happy man. Earlier, it was his directorial venture Staying Alive which has been acclaimed at various film festivals. And now his most awaited film Red Alert- The war within which will have its world premiere at the Stuttgart festival on 19th July.
However, the entire team of Red Alert- The war within came forward to address the media as to what the film is all about. Red Alert is like a mirror to all the unrest and violence across the world. It is Universal, yet at the core original, uncompromising and a very Indian film,” Anant explains.
However, Suniel Shetty could not have asked for more. His powerful role and hardwork in his performance was the talk of the press conference. His co-stars were all praises for him. To which he humbly answered, “Although I play a very crucial and important role in the film but the writer Aruna Raje has woven the story so well that at the end of the film the audience will find it difficult to gauge as to who was in the lead role.”
The entire cast and crew seemed positive about the film and after the premiere at Stuttgart the film will be released in the month of September in India.

Red Alert - the War within goes to Stuttgart Festival

Red Alert - the War within goes to Stuttgart Festival

Bollywood’s Macho-Man and action hero Suniel Shetty has been out of on screen tussle and have been not seen combating villains in the movie since long. The wait is over as Anant Narayan Mahadevan gives audience an action flick, RED ALERT- The War Within, starring Suniel Shetty in a role with a difference along with Nasseruddin Shah, Vinod Khanna, Ashish Vidyarthi, Gulshan Grover and Sameera Reddy.

The movie is based on a real life story. The movie revolves around Narasimha (Suniel Shetty), an unfortunate farm navvy who is in desperate need of money for his children’s education and would go up till any extent for money. Narasimha in mid of his search comes in contact with a group of terrorists.

To begin with Narasimha cooks food for the group. Soon he starts getting trained for weapons and involves himself in shootouts and kidnapping. Narasimha soon begins to realise as to what his destiny was forcing to do to earn his living and had never even thought in his nightmare of such a pointless furthermore helpless situation.

Narasimha’s life gets even more complex and intricate when he lands up in war of words and disagreement with the group leader (Ashish Vidyarthi). This makes his life hell. Now the question arises is- Will Narasimha follow his principles and disagree with the leader’s plans and deeds? Or, will he go against his morals and support the Naxal cause?

This movie will see a comeback for Suniel Shetty in more of serious role. With such a strong script and talented actors, the expectations are really high from the movie.