Versatile actor Dr Manchu Mohan Babu has felicitated director Nag Ashwin and producers Swapna and Priyanka Dutt on the grand success of ‘Mahanati.’

Mohan Babu played the role of the legendary SV Ranga Rao in ‘Mahanati’ and the ‘Mayabazar’ scene has been recreated as part of it.

Lakshmi Manchu and Vishnu too congratulated the trio on this occasion. Delighted by the gesture, the team ‘Mahanati’ thanked the Manchu family for their warmth and affection.

Hero Vishnu took it on his official Twitter handle and added that ‘Mahanati’ is one of the best biopics in Indian cinema.

Nothing had prepared Keerthy Suresh for the impact of her latest release “Mahanati”. The film and the tragic story of the iconic actress Savitri’s downfall has taught Keerthy plenty about life.

“It wasn’t easy playing Savitri. Her life was so eventful and so short. I learnt the value of family and friends. The entertainment industry can isolate you. I will never make the mistakes that Savitri ma’am did in her life and career,” Keerthy said.

The film, directed by Nag Ashwin, traces the ups and downs in the personal and professional life of the late iconic southern cinema actress Savitri. It is a blockbuster.

“Audiences seem to have taken to the film in a very big way. Of course when I agreed to do ‘Mahanati’, I knew we were on to something special. But nothing had prepared us in the ‘Mahanati’ team for this kind of impact. We’re literally flooded with praise and compliments. It is something I’ve not experienced before. Not to this extent,” Keerthy said.

The 25-year-old Tamil-Telugu-Malayalam actress just can’t believe what is happening. Keerthy is no stranger to success and recognition. She has been doing Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films for the last 18 years.

“I started as a child artiste in a Malayalam film. Of course when I started, I knew nothing about camera angles, plot points… I just knew I had to be acting in films. Since my father (producer Suresh Kumar) was a producer, it was easy to get my first few jobs as a child artiste.””After the first few films, I was on my own. I built my own career brick by brick. And now here I am.”

She finds it a little hard to believe that she initially had reservations about pulling off the role of Savitri in “Mahanati”.”Of course I knew about Savitri m’aam. Who in southern film industry doesn’t know about her? She is a legend. And of course, it was very flattering for me to be offered the role.”

“I was not at all sure I could pull off the character’s darker periods in life, specially the parts where she takes to drinking. I was not sure I could pull this off. But the director (Ashwin Nag) was sure. He had seen my Tamil film “Thodari” with Danush. And the way I performed in one particular song, convinced him I could pull off the younger part of Savitri ma’am’s life, her innocence and sense of fun and mischief.”

“The director sent me footage from Savitri ma’am’s films. He had segregated the scenes as ‘happy’, ‘dramatic’, ‘comic’, etc… Watching these, and of course the whole of “Maya Bazaar” since we had to perform scenes from that film in “Mahanati”. I learnt what not to do while playing Savitri ma’am.

“I was definitely not going to imitate Savitri Ma’am. To ensure that I played her my way, I didn’t watch any more of her films.”For all the hard work, nothing had prepared Keerthy for the success of “Mahanati”.

“It is being seen as an epic. There is so much love and affection for Savitri ma’am. We were not sure how the audience would react to the fatal flaws in her character. But the audience has embraced the film and Savitri’s life story with all her weaknesses.”

“I couldn’t have asked for more. A role of a real-life character and that too someone so iconic and complex would have come to me after at least ten more years of experience. But I guess I was destined to play Savitri ma’am. Somewhere we all felt her presence guiding us in making this film.”With success on this scale comes added responsibility.

“I understand audiences expect me to be playing central characters more often. But they must understand that roles and films like “Mahanati” don’t come along too often. I am equally happy to do the mass-appealing commercial films where the hero definitely has more to do than the heroine.

“My career in the future would be a balanced mix of commercial cinema and heroine-oriented projects.”Keerthy warns that her forthcoming films do not feature her in central parts.

“They were all signed before ‘Mahanati’ released. I must be honest in confessing that in my next three films ‘Saamy 2’, ‘Sandakozhi 2’ and ‘Thalapathy 62’, my leading men have a lot more to do than I do.

“So yes, those who expect me in central roles after ‘Mahanati’ would be disappointed. I can only assure them that in future, I will make sure I’ve substantial roles in all the films I do.”

Like some other heirs of big businesses, we never saw the three kids of honcho Mukesh Ambani either partying with their girlfriend/boyfriend or making some secret appearances with them. And the recent engagements in Ambani family showcased that the kids will marry as per their parent’s wishes.

The two elder kids of Mukesh and Neeta Ambani, twins Akash and Isha Ambani got engaged to their respective spouses recently. While Akash is getting married to his childhood friend Shloka Mehta, his sister Isha Ambani got engaged to Piramal company’s heir Anand Piramal. And here is another rumour doing rounds.

The younger son of the Ambanis, Anant is a known name in media circles because he used to make lovely appearances at IPL matches of Mumbai Indians. And when he went into that fit look leaving behind his fatso appearance, Anant just shocked everyone. Reports are now coming that this youngster is secretly engaged to his sweetheart named Radhika Merchant.

Though much details of Radhika Merchant are not yet known, already pictures of Anant and Radhika indulging in a hug are doing rounds everywhere. Also, some other pictures of her with Anant are also getting viral on social media. But why would Ambanis opt for a secret engagement when they have thrown lavish parties for the other two engagements of their children?

After making “Baahubali” for almost five years, definitely, Rajamouli will be upping the ante to make sure that his next film will be finished in record time. Because the lessons taught by Baahubali production will come in handy for the ace director to solve any big puzzle (read production times) easily.

Like we reported earlier, Rajamouli wants to go on floors with his #RRR featuring Ram Charan and Rama Rao Junior from October. And some film observers feel that Jakkanna might be not that serious to kick start the movie as the pre-production work is yet to complete. But here is an insider update.

Actually, Rajamouli is looking forward to June 1st week where he wants to narrate the story to Ram Charan and NTR, and then narrate the whole story to his crew. For the now, he just shared the main idea with all of them. And an update is that the shooting of the film will take off from October. Here is a proof for that as well.

Ram Charan himself revealed other day that Rajamouli is constantly calling up his present film producer to make sure that shooting of his film with Boyapati as planned such that #RRR will not get delayed from October. Both Charan and NTR doesn’t know when will Rajamouli free them, but they are readying to join him from October. That means Rajamouli is hellbent on kick-starting #RRR soon and might finish it on time too.

From Amitabh Bachchan to Shahrukh Khan, many big celebrities always turned victims of these hoax messages. Guess what, today a message regarding Bollywood Star Hero Ajay Devgan started doing rounds on WhatsApp saying that he succumbed to a helicopter crash. Here is the truth.

The message reads that hero Ajay Devgan’s chartered helicopter has crashed at Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and both him and pilot died on the spot. However, some police officials talk to leading Bollywood portals confirmed that there is no such incident that took place in the last one week.

It’s now being heard that this fake message started circulating from a week ago and died off in time. But now on Monday morning, it resurfaced on Whats App and more movie lovers are forwarding it to friends. Police are now said to be investigating the origin of the fake message that is spreading about the helicopter crash.

Meanwhile, Ajay Devgan is busy shooting for his next film where Rakul Preet Singh is roped in as the heroine.

Every hero has some unique habits of treating their technicians and other crew. And some extend their warm attitude and hospitality for media folks too. In his prime, Chiranjeevi is known for taking many technicians and journalists to home to make them taste his favourite Dosa. Here comes Ram Charan now.

Whenever someone important is meeting him, Charan is making sure that they will sit down at his farmhouse to celebrate the meet. Recently when a big Bollywood critic has flown down to Hyderabad all the way from Mumbai, he took him to his farmhouse, treating him to a sumptuous lunch. All the different Andhra and Telangana dishes are said to be on the table, along with some mouthwatering snacks.

Also at the farmhouse, after one wraps the lunch, the Rangasthalam star is giving them a first-hand interaction with his pet animals including horses and cows. And the lush green environment around the farmhouse is said to be wondering the visitors.

Guess what, many celebs are now looking forward if Ram Charan will be inviting them to his farmhouse one day for this impressive lunch and get together. Currently, the mega powerstar left to Bangkok to shoot for Boyapati’s film.