Last year when the shooting of Mani Ratnam's Raavan started, it got slightly delayed by Amitabh Bachchan's illness on his birthday. Mani's lead actors Abhishek and Aishwarya did not leave the Big B's side till he was released from hospital, leaving Mani with little choice but to delay his shoot. This time round, Mani finds himself in hospital.

According to reports received, Mani has been kept under observation at a hospital in Chennai. The director actually went and got himself admitted in the hospital as he was feeling very uneasy. A quiet man, who does not believe in indulging in histrionics, Mani was apparently in a session with lyricist Gulzar and composer AR Rahman when he started feeling uneasy. Instead of disrupting the creative session that was going on, the director is believed to have quietly excused himself and driven off to the nearest hospital.. he is reported to be doing well now. The unease could have been due to a heart attack, but fortunately that has been ruled out by the doctors. The director too has been under a certain amount of stress, all related to his film of course. It is hope that he will be released in a few days.The next schedule of Raavan which was scheduled to start on April 20, will now probably be postponed.

There is hardly any good news to be derived form the box office these days. Most of the Hindi films that have been released in the last couple of months have bombed miserably at the box office. It is probably the biggest leveller.

Even an icon like Akshay Kumar, who was on an all time high after the success of Singh Is Kinng was brought to the ground with a thud following the no show of his Chandni Chowk To China and 8x10 Tasveer. The others too have not had nay great success. But the one film which seems to breaking all kinds of records in Maharshatra is the Marathi movie, Mee Shivaji Raje Bhosle Boltoy. The film which has been directed by Santosh Manjrekar, stars Mahesh Manjrekar in the lead role of Shivaji. The film has had a fantastic opening despite releasing on the same day as Akshay's 8x10 Tasveer. The film is believed to have already amassed collections of Rs 3 crore and more. The film's director has reportedly rubbished reports about his film being a copy of Lage Raho Munnabhai. It just goes to prove once again that content is the master. Wonder when our directors in Bollywood will really get the message.