‘Vijetha’ which is the launch pad of Megastar Chiranjeevi’s son-in-law Kalyaan Dhev is likely to hit the screens on July 6th. Sai Korrapati who is the producer of the film, wants to release the movie on the given date as a mark of sentiment.

Korrapati’s film ‘Eega’ had released on the same date and turned a blockbuster. The film also won the national award. ‘Vijetha’ is a prestigious film for Vaaraahi Chalana Chitram banner and Sai Korrapati is leaving no stone unturned to make it a superhit at the box office.

The teaser of ‘Vijetha’ which was released the other day, got good response and Kalyaan Dhev made a strong statement with the teaser. Written and directed by Rakesh Sashii, ‘Vijetha’ is about a father and son.

Hope Korrapati’s sentiment pays off and ‘Vijetha’ becomes a superhit like ‘Eega.’

Written and directed by Universal hero Kamal Haasan, the first instalment of “Viswaroopam” raised enough controversies that stalled film’s release for a year. Only after Kamal cried openly during a press meet, some forces finally stopped opposing the movie.

Years later, with Viswaroopam 2 hitting the cinemas and the film’s trailer not showcasing anything controversial, now the very same forces are busy making an issue out of it. This time, they have targeted Music director Ghibran whose name on the new posters is spelt in a different way.

Generally, the composer prefers his name to be printed as either Ghibran or M Ghibran, but this time Viswaroopam 2 posters printed it as “Mohammad Ghibran”. Whatever the name may be, his good music speaks for himself, not the name. But few felt that the name change is made only to attract particular community and hence a TV channel started a debate regarding it.

During the prime time, this channel hosted a debate with six people talking about it. While Ghibran clarified that he wants to change his name as to show dedication to God and also he did it with this film because of the way Kamal sir gave a turning point with this film. Still, some have a problem with his name it seems.

There is a serious vacuum when it comes to the comedy department in Tollywood. We are not talking about writing comedy, but our worry is about the lack of enough star-material comedians here.

With Brahmanandam’s popularity waning off and comedians like MS Narayana and Dharmavarapu no more, Tollywood is left with few options. Able talents like Sunil, Saptagiri and Shakalaka Shankar are looking at heroism, Prithvi is amassing interest in politics and Posani is busy scolding Chandrababu Naidu. That left Tolly makers run after Vennela Kishore, making him the busiest comedian now.

During his childhood days, Master Bharat impressed big time and became a sought-after child-star in Sreenu Vaitla’s movies. Whether it is his ‘Spiderman ayithey maa vooru endukochav ra?’ dialogue in “Ready” or his drunkard acting during train sequence in “Venky”, Bharat scored many marks. And now he’s all grown up and debuting as hero’s cousin in Allu Sirish’s ABCD movie.

If Bharat could prove his mettle as the young man that could carry beacon of Comedy department, Tollywood is ready to welcome him with open arms. But the only thing he has to keep in mind is, if he soon wants to become a hero then his stardom will be a shorter version. Let’s see if he uses this golden chance or not!

Social media trolls had a ball when news came out that Chiranjeevi’s son in law Kalyaan Dhev is making debut as an actor. They termed mega family as a cricket team as everyone from their family is stepping in front of the cameras. Despite all the mockery, Kalyaan Dhev is able to grab eyeballs with his upcoming debut film Vijetha.

Teaser of Vijetha has been receiving thumping response on YouTube. The teaser already clocked over 1.2 million views in a day and is trending on top in the video sharing website. The trailer also got twenty thousand likes proving that people are not only keen on watching Kalyaan in action but also have liked the content of the teaser.

Kalyaan Dhev’s impressive looks and confident portrayal of his character is getting good response from fans and film buffs. He sure looks like a hero material and not someone who is cashing in on the family image and fan base. It would be interesting to see whether Vijetha also opens on a strong note at box office too.

Brand Rajinikanth took a beating with Kaala, which ended up as big disaster at box office. This is third consecutive big flop for Rajinikanth in Telugu. Kaala is heading for bigger flop than Lingaa and Kaala with mediocre show at the ticket windows. Poor show of Kaala has shocked the buyers of Rajini’s magnum opus 2.0.

Telugu dubbing rights of Shankar-Rajini’s film have been bought for a whopping Rs. 80 crore. Asian Films Sunil and Suresh Babu bet big on 2.0 as Shankar-Rajini previous associations were sensational hits in Telugu too. However, Rajinikanth is not able to deliver another hit post Robo and besides that release of 2.0 is delayed by a year.

As per unconfirmed reports, 2.0 will hit the screens in next April. Meanwhile, Rajinikanth’s market came crashing down in Telugu states leaving 2.0 Telugu distributors in a spot of bother. As per grapevine, Telugu distributors of 2.0 who paid Rs. 20 crore in advance have asked for Rs. 8 crore back as the project has been indefinitely postponed.

Lyca Productions reportedly threatened to cancel entire deal if they couldn’t wait. On the other hand, Dil Raju is keen on bagging 2.0 Telugu rights as per trade sources. Despite Rajini’s recent track record, 2.0 is bound to take the box office by storm given the project’s magnitude and a superstar director like Shankar at the helm.

So the poor response for Kaala need not be a worrying factor for this mega budget visual splendor.

Actress Kiara Advani, who made her acting debut with the 2014 release “Fugly”, went on to star in successful films like “M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story” and the Telugu political drama “Bharat Ane Nenu”.

With “Kalank” and her digital anthology “Lust Stories”, she is excited for 2018 and says being versatile is her goal.

“2018 is an extremely exciting year for me as I’m exploring a wider audience… I’m doing a film in a language that I don’t know and working hard to master that, then there is a film for Netflix which will reach a global audience and of course the Hindi language film. The ability to reach out to such a diverse audience is just the most exciting,” Kiara told IANS in an e-mail interview.

“Lust Stories”, an Indian anthology film, consists of four short film segments directed by four different directors: Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar and she says that the benefit of showing it digitally is that there is no restriction on creativity.

“Honestly, when we shot the film we didn’t know Netflix wanted to pick it up. It’s also the perfect platform given the content, it’s important (that) the film caters to the right audience and is not restricted creatively.

“While I was blessed to have Karan Sir (Karan Johar) direct me and hold my hand throughout, the character despite being a challenging role was liberating to perform,” said Kiara, who is also Pond’s brand ambassador.

She is also excited about “Kalank”, a film directed by Abhishek Varman and produced by Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiadwala and Fox Star Studios. It stars Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles.

“It’s a beautifully written special appearance. And it’s the first time I’ll be seen in a commercial item song. To top it, it’s a period film so the costume and the look is very different for me, even I haven’t seen myself looking this way before.

“This is the first time I’m working with Manish Malhotra for a film so you can only imagine how glamorous his vision is and that was exciting. We have almost finished shooting my part for the film, I’m now looking forward to shooting with Madhuri Ma’am and sharing screen space with her is the cherry on the icing,” she said.

Kiara says that she wants to be an actor who can slip into any character without any baggage or stereotype.

“Being versatile is my goal,” she said.

But what about the complications in the film industry right now ?

“Personally, I feel blessed to be doing what I love doing so I focus on the positives and don’t know any other way of being. I can’t compare the times since I’ve only experienced this generation and I feel blessed to be chosen to play strong female characters,” said the 25-year-old.

The actress also says that “If you’re good you’ll stay.”

“But what’s important is luck and opportunity because no matter how good you are, if nobody gives you that opportunity then no one will ever know,” she said.

(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)

The casting of ‘Yaatra’, which happens to be a biopic of late CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy is being slowly finalised and some big names are popping up now. Directed by Mahi V Raghav, shooting of this film started already.

While Malayalam superstar Mammootty is essaying the role of YSR in this biopic, we hear that Posani is playing YSR’s personal assistant Sureedu, while Baahubali fame Ashrita will be seen as YS Vijayamma. Recently heroine Bhumika has rejected the rumours that she’s playing Ys Jagan’s sister in this film. Director Mahi also confirmed that there is no scene of Jagan’s sister in his script.

Cut to other casting, we hear that former Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy’s role will be seen to the fullest in this film. For that reason, director Mahi is said to have roped in former heroine Suhasini, wife of director Mani Ratnam. These days she’s not being seen in many films and it looks like the script of YSR’s story has really excited her.

But what is that key role Sabitha Indra Reddy played during YSR’s Paada Yaatra is something we have to see. The lady minister holds the record of becoming the first ever woman home minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state.

Sudheer Babu’s upcoming film ‘Sammohanam’ is releasing on June 15th. The film is an out and out romantic drama. It’s well known that Sudheer has launched his own production house named Sudheer Productions.

Today, Sudheer took to his social networking page and said that he will reveal the title and other details of his maiden home production soon. But we have exclusively learnt that the film has been titled Nannu Dochukunduvate. Interestingly, Nannu Dochukunduvate is an iconic song from legendary actor NT Ramarao’s 1962 film ‘Gulebakavali Katha’.

Sudheer’s maiden film as a producer has already wrapped up its shoot. But he kept everything about the movie under wraps since this film too is a romantic drama like Sammohanam and he didn’t want to confuse audiences.

Rajasekhar has directed Nannu Dochukunduvate. Kannada starlet Nabha Natesh is the film’s heroine.