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TributeActor, director and ad man Pratap Pothen died of a heart attack at his Chennai apartment on July 15.CrisA day ago, Pratap Pothen was still writing posts on Facebook, taking digs at life and death with his trademark dark humour. "When you treat the symptoms of a problem without treating the root cause of it, then you will start to be dependent on the pharmacy," said one post. Quoting American comedian George Carlin, he wrote another, "Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time." By the morning of July 15, Pratap was found dead in his sleep in his Chennai apartment. A heart attack in the middle of the night took the maverick actor and filmmaker's life. By then he was close to 70 years of age and had contributed much to films, Tamil and Malayalam most of all. Pratap was divided between the two languages,...

KollywoodFrom Kongu to Singala Tamil, many actors have tried out different dialects on the big screen to make their character more convincing.Anjana ShekarIn Viswasam, actor Ajith played a village goon from Madurai. In Red (2002) too, he had played the role of a local don from Madurai. To sound more authentic this time, the actor tried speaking in the local dialect, inserting phrases like ‘injarule’ (a local exclamation for ‘won’t you look at this?’) to make a pronounced effect. Although not one hundred percent authentic, we’ve seen actors trying out new dialects time and again which would give more edge to their character. And most times, this becomes a unique aspect of the film that is extolled by the makers before its release. Here's a list of dialects we've seen on the big screen and the films in which they featured. 'Madras' Tamil This is one of the...