The two blockbusters with two big directors in her second year in the Kannada film industry propelled Aindrita Ray straight into the top league of actors. As the rather tiresome cliché goes, she has never looked back since. Having acted in nearly 20 Kannada films with superstars, Aindrita makes it clear that she is not in the race for the No. 1 position in Sandalwood. “Who cares about the No. 1 position? Today, I will be there; tomorrow someone else might claim it. How does it matter anyway? I don’t believe in the race to be No. 1.

Divya Spandana debuted in Puneet Rajkumar’s second film Abhi in 2003. Since then, she has acted in more than 25 Kannada movies and several Tamil and Telugu projects. She is one of the longest surviving actors in Kannada films. But not a year goes by without her being dragged into a controversy.

His 104th fi lm Lakshmi ran to packed houses across Karnataka and superstar Shivrajkumar is no doubt impressed with the way the movie has panned out. He has three more movies lined up for release this year, including the much-awaited Kaddi Pudi, directed by Duniya Soori and Andar Bahar. But it is Lakshmi that Shivarajkumar is most excited about at the moment. Until the movie was released, the impression given by the makers was that Lakshmi was a familysentiment drama. This was received normally, as it has been a formula that has often clicked for Shivarajkumar.

• Bulbul is the remake of the Telugu blockbuster Darling. Darshan owes his success in his career to a large extent, to remakes. Looks like the trend continues now with the actor preferring to work on a remake based on the original story after two back-to-back hits. Produced by his brother Dinakar, the movie went on the fl oors recently.