While the legal tussle between Rockline Entertainments and Balaji Studios over Lingaa continues, the Rajinikanth-Sonakshi Sinha starrer released on Friday opened to mixed reviews. Apart from Rajini’s trademark style, his ‘heart of gold’ scenes, director KS Ravikumar eats chunk of screen time with his lethargic screenplay. 

Especially the second half of the film completely revolves around construction of Singanoor dam which is too tiresome. Whereas, in Chiranjeevi’s Indra Rayalaseema is drought-prone area but there director B.Gopal tactically solved it with a single song. In fact, the same director KS Ravikumar in Padayappa (Narasimha), showed how Rajinikanth turned his hillock into granite and becomes rich in a single song. 

Contrary to these in Lingaa, KS Ravikumar put more effort on dam, how it’s constructed, lands issues boring the audience. Had this been avoided, at least fans would have been happy. Even the first half of the film is too slow to sit through. Let’s see whether Rajini pull it off?

Not many know that all is not well between actress Hema and comedy king Brahmanandam. Although the duo tickled one’s funny bones with their comedy in Athadu and their on screen camaraderie is indisputable, apparently their personal bonding is going through rough weathers which is affecting the movie-goers and missing the duo’s comic antics. 

In a candid interview, Hema revealed her differences with Brahmanandam. Hema said, “I lost several offers after directors and producers roped me in. Several directors told me that Brahmanandam Annayya didn’t want to act with me and asked me to replace with another artiste. When I had questioned him about this, Brahmananadam Annayya said he never said so but said perhaps budget issues could have been the reason. I initially didn’t take it to heart.

But this is not one instance or one role. It has repeated for four to five films in a row.” “It’s when I got irritated and got angry on him. I didn’t ask him again but because of this, even I stayed away from him. When I was sharing the same with a media person, he apparently told this to Brhamanandam Annayya and he instantly called me. I said yes I told him. But he said he is innocent,” shared Hema.”It’s been a while we acted together. And am not sure whether we’d completely ditch our differences or not. 

I think Brahmanandam Annayya and I still have this in our heart,” added Hema. Also Hema admitted that she once said she is “bored” of doing same roles like acting as wife alongside short actors (like Brahamanandam and MS Narayana) and expressed her doubt whether it led to the differences. Whatever be the reasons, the two good artistes may not team up soon. Looks like ego clashes erupted between both the actors. It’s certainly loss for movie-goers.

According to unit sources, Rashi Khanna is being considered opposite Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja for his next. While Tamanna is roped in for the female lead in the film, Rashi is reportedly considering for the second fiddle. 

Apparently, Rashi too is in favour of the film as she feels her role has significance in the story. Sampath Nandi, who walked out of Gabbar Singh 2, is going to direct the film. Rashi is riding high in her career with her hits like Madras Cafe, Oohalu Gusagusalade. Although Joru failed at Box Office, Rashi is flooded with offers as her glam quotient and acting prowess were highly appreciated in the film. If she lands in Ravi Teja’s film, definitely Rashi moves into big league. 

Meanwhile, Rashi is also teaming up with Gopichand for a film directed by newcomer Radha Krishna Kumar (Saahsam dialogue writer) and it is produced by Run Raja Run production house. Ravi Teja is presently stuck with Kick 2 directed by Surender Reddy and produced by Nandamuri Kalyan Ram. Soon after wrapping up this commitment, Ravi Teja will join Sampath’s directorial.

In a shocking instance, piracy CDs of Rajinikanth’s just released Lingaa surfaced just a day after its release on Friday. Guntur police has busted a piracy CD racket in Vinukonda of Guntur on Saturday where a team of pirates were caught red-handed along with piracy CDs of the film. Apparently the pirates had been operating their business from a house in Vishnukundi Nagar in Vinukonda. 

Acting on a tip, team of CCS police officials caught the pirates along with CDs. Along with the piracy CDs of Lingaa, police found several piracy CDs of the latest Telugu films from the team. Cops have taken 22 computers and several CDs, DVDs into possession. A detailed probe has been ordered on how they managed to do piracy. More details are awaited.

Celebrated item-bomb Mumaith Khan lost her sheen few years back as audiences got bored of her similar moves and over board skin shows. But when she took Tollywood by a storm through “Pokiri”, no one would have imagined how successful she will be for a while. And here comes her comeback news. 

Apparently Mumaith Khan is roped in by actor Rajasekhar for his upcoming “Geddam Gang”, which happens to be a remake of Tamil hit movie ‘Soodhu Kavum’. For a special song that goes by the lyrics ‘Cholie ke peeche kya hai’, our senior bomb will groove alongside Rajasekhar and gang, showcasing her mesmeric curves that are of late failing to enthrall Telugu audiences. Going by the lyric we could say how ‘spicy’ the song is going to be, as we all know that Mumaith has a ‘good’ heart behind her choli.

Despite of the godly image he is having, it looks if Superstar is unable to come out or the cocoon to deliver something beyond what audiences expect from him. A look at some of his recent films prove a point that Rajnikanth is stuck with the idea of rich guy becoming poor kind of notion. From Muthu, Arunachalam, Narasimha to Sivaji and Lingaa, the central theme is similar.

Surely our star needs to have a tab over these stories that have become monotonous. Films like Robo are the need of hour for Rajni if he wants to showcase the world that his image is not just wondrous but literally does wonders. Otherwise, these tried and tested scripts are failing to evince interest among audiences. 

Of late, audiences are looking for sensibilities among big stars’ films even if the story defies logic and against physics. There is no dent to Rajni’s image with these run of the mill flicks, but surely it is Superstar’s responsibility to deliver new and awe inspiring.