Chennai, May 25 : Bollywood film "Singham" fame Ajay Devgn, director Rohit Shetty and Kannada actor Kicha Sudeep will attend the audio launch of Suriya-starrer Tamil action-drama "Singam 2" here June 2.

"Bollywood 'Singham' actor Ajay Devgn, director Rohit Shetty and Kannada actor Sudeep will grace the audio launch of Suriya's 'Singam 2', which will take place on June 2," said a statement from the production house.

"Singam 2", directed by Hari Gopalakrishnan, also features Hansika Motwani, Anushka Shetty, Santhanam, Vivek, Vijay Kumar, Nassar, Radha Ravi and Anjali.

Chennai, May 20 : Private sector City Union Bank plans to open around 80 branches and add more automated teller machines (ATM) this year, a top official said Monday.

"We plan to open 75-80 branches this year. Currently, we have 375 branches and 790 ATMs. We will continue to maintain the branch-ATM ratio of 1:2," N. Kamakodi, managing director, told reporters here.

Announcing the bank's financial results for 2012-13, he said: "The bank earned a total income of Rs. 2,462.39 crore and a net profit of Rs. 322.02 crore as against Rs. 1,903.90 crore and Rs. 280.25 crore respectively earned during
2011-12."

Chennai, May 17 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa Friday urged the prime minister to order the implementation of the final award of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Friday, Jayalalithaa said: "I exhort you to order the Ministry of Water Resources to constitute the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee without any further delay."

Chennai, May 16 : Two years after she stormed into Fort St. George, the seat of power in Tamil Nadu, with a massive victory, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa has a mixed bag of results to show so far.

Forcing the central government to gazette the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal by filing a case in the Supreme Court, distributing relief to farmers in the drought-hit areas; urging retrieval of the Katchatheevu islet from Sri Lanka; and setting up of Amma Canteen (budget canteen) selling food at subsidised rates are said to be some of the achievements of Jayalalithaa government.

Chennai, May 16 : After being selected for screening at the Cannes International Film Festival and Shanghai International Film Festival, S. S. Rajamouli's Telugu revenge-drama "Eega" will also be featured at the Madrid International Film Festival and Puchon International Film Festival.

At the Madrid fest, the movie is nominated in six award categories.

"More good news! 'Eega' has been selected for few more film festivals. In Madrid film festival, it is nominated for six awards ... Puchon International Film Festival in Korea is popular and 'Eega' has been invited for screening," Rajamouli posted on his Twitter page.

Chennai, May 15 : Oscar-winning composer A. R. Rahman, who managed to have a glimpse of one of the songs from superstar Rajinikanth-starrer Tamil period-drama "Kochadaiyaan", describes it as "epic".

"(I) had a sneak preview of Rajini sir's motion capture results for one of the songs from 'Kochadaiyaan'. (It) looks like animation on steroids! Epic," posted Rahman on his Twitter page.

Rahman has composed the music for the film, directed by Rajini's daughter Soundarya Ashwin.

Chennai, May 15 : Southern actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu is so busy with her projects in hand that she has decided not to sign any new film this year.

“I haven’t signed any new film. (I) will not be signing any new film this year. Too much work already,” posted Samantha on her Twitter page.

The 26-year-old currently has four Telugu projects in her kitty. At the moment, she is busy juggling between Naga Chaitanya-starrer political-thriller “Autonagar Surya” and Junior NTR-starrer action-drama “Ramayya Vasthavayya”.

Chennai, May 15 : Patterns Software Design Institute plans to tie up with software product developers and engineering colleges to train their executives and students in software design architecture, an official said.

The company is a city-based software design consulting, audit and training firm.

Chennai, May 14 : Southern actress Swati Reddy, who is paired with Nikhil Siddharth for the second time for director Chandu Mondenti's film, says a hit pair may or may not work because the fate of a film depends on its content.

Swati and Nikhil were last seen together in highly successful Telugu crime-comedy "Swamy Ra Ra". And now they will feature in Mondenti's untitled upcoming Telugu thriller-comedy.

Chennai, May 10 : Production of cars at the Renault Nissan Automotive India Pvt Ltd (RNAIPL) will not be impacted due to the fire that gutted down the warehouse belonging to Yusen Logistics (India) Ltd, a senior official of Nissan Motor India Friday said.

Renault Nissan Automotive is a vehicle manufacturing joint venture between French group Renault and Japanese Nissan Motor Company. The 400,000 units per annum car plant, located at Oragadam near here, rolls out Nissan and Renault badged cars.

Chennai, May 10 : Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland Ltd will be launching three new vehicles, including a passenger carrier, and investing around Rs. 600 crore this year while rejigging its organisational structure in line with its mission to be one of the top 10 truck-makers and top five bus-makers in the world, said a top company official.

Chennai, May 10 : DMK president M. Karunanidhi Friday said India should not only boycott the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) slated to be held in Sri Lanka later this year but also gather the support of other countries to prevent the summit from being held in the island nation.

"India should understand the feelings of all the Tamils and chart out its strategy accordingly," Karunanidhi said in a statement issued here.

Chennai, May 9 : Bollywood Baadshah Shah Rukh Khan has agreed to be part of the 7th edition of Vijay awards scheduled to presented here Saturday.

"SRK agreed to be part of the award function after a representative from Star Vijay team flew down to Mumbai Wednesday and invited him personally," spokesperson of the awards team told IANS.

SRK will hand over some awards to the winners and, according to a source, the Hindi film superstar will also get an award.

Chennai, May 9 : Government-owned Indian Bank closed last fiscal with a Rs. 166 crore fall in its net profit owing to higher provisioning for bad debts and other accounts despite the total income going up by Rs. 1,717 crore.

Announcing the annual results for 2012-13 here Thursday, chairman and managing director T. M. Bhasin said: "The provisioning in absolute terms went up by Rs. 400 crore to around Rs. 704 crore."

The bank's total income stood at Rs. 15,180 crore last fiscal, up from Rs. 13,463 crore posted in 2011-12.

Chennai, May 6 : Southern actress Hansika Motwani, who is currently shooting in Slovenia for an untitled Telugu multi-starrer, is completely in awe of the place.

"Slovenia is four hours away from Milan. And it's such an amazing place, so much honesty, peace and calmness. Loving it," Hansika posted on her Twitter page.

She is currently shooting with Vishnu Manchu for the film, which also features Manchu Manoj, Manchu Mohan Babu, Praneetha, Varun Sandesh and Tanish.

Bollywood actress Raveena Tandon will also feature in an important role in the film, being directed by Srivas.

Chennai, May 6 : India's space agency is planning to have a total of five rocket launches in 2013 from its rocket launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from here. This will include a mission to Mars later this year.

Four of the launches are expected to happen between June and December, including the launch of communication satellite G-Sat 14 using heavier rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - powered with a domestic cryogenic engine.

Chennai, May 5 - International R&B singer Akon has flown here to record global version of Tamil actor Silambarasan aka Simbu's hit love single "Love Anthem", which was originally released in 2011 for world peace.

Akon arrived here Saturday night and the team has begun shooting.

"This version will be different than the last version of the song. The new version will be more about oneness and the need to spread love," Simbu told IANS.

Chennai, May 1 : Japanese-Indian car joint venture Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. logged domestic sales of 9,007 units last month as compared to 14,378 units sold in April 2012.

Taking into account exports of 1,449 units last month, the company's total sales stand at 10,456 units - less than what it sold during the corresponding month in 2012.

"The market continues to be sluggish and is expected to take some time to revive. We have taken measures to reduce inventory, both at our and at the dealers' end," Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director and chief operating officer (marketing and commercial), was quoted as saying in a company statement.

Chennai, May 1 :  Indian car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Ltd closed last month with three percent lower sales compared to what it sold in April 2012, the company announced Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that it sold 97,302 units (domestic 90,523 units, exports 6,779 units) last month, down from 100,415 units (domestic 90,255 units, exports 10,160 units) sold in April 2012.

Maruti Suzuki logged sales growth in the mini (M800, A-Star, Alto, WagonR) and the super compact cars (Dzire) segments while compact cars (Swift, Estilo, Ritz), mid-sized (SX4), utility vehicles (Ertiga Gypsy, Grand Vitara), vans

Chennai, May 1 : Two and three wheeler maker TVS Motor Company Ltd closed last month with sales of 165,214 units, down from 174,455 units in April 2012, the Chennai-based company announced Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that it sold 160,502 two wheelers (domestic 142,794 units, exports 17,708 units) last month against 171,551 (domestic 151,181 units, exports 20,370 units) sold in April 2012.

Last month, TVS Motor sold 4,713 units up from 2,904 units sold in April 2012.

The company plans to launch a diesel-powered three-wheeler, a new motorcycle, a new scooter and product upgrades during the course of this fiscal.(IANS)