Arguably, Mohanlal is one of the best actors in the South. Time and again, he has proved it with his films, acting prowess. Be it Pulimurugan (Manyam Puli) or Oppam (Kanupapa) or in Janatha Garage, Mohanlal has been a great crowd puller.

His latest offering Villain too has got a great start at the Box Office. The film, released on October 27, opened to Rs 4.91 Crore on its first day. It has witnessed a maximum number of fans’ shows ever all around (150 ) in Kerala starting early at 7 am. Billed to be a crime thriller, the film had a huge advance booking started on last Sunday and was almost fulls in maximum theaters till Sunday.The film is released in more than 250 screens across Kerala alone with a maximum number of shows a new record for a Malayalam film.

The film has ensemble cast including a few well-known faces in Telugu. Raashi Khanna, Hansika Motwani, Vishal, Srikanth besides popular Malayalam actress Manju Warrier are seen in important roles. Apparently, Vishal and Srikanth have dubbed for their roles in Malayalam.

With a tagline – ‘When Good is Bad’, the film directed by Unnikrishnan deals with an emotional crime investigation that gives an edge-of-seat-thriller. Producer Rockline Venkatesh is planning to release the Telugu and Tamil version in December. Post-production is currently under way.

Other day when senior hero Rajasekhar spoke about the movie Garuda Vega at the pre-release event, it is so emotional for everyone to watch him utter some truths and reality.

‘My mom felt happy for Garuda Vega as the film’s teaser got 5 million views, a first in my career. But shortly she left this world. Before that, she felt that even I will also lose Crores like many other stars who have come to roads before death. I would have easily gotten nearly 200 crores in hand if I’ve not sold those assets in Chennai. I made some wrong movies out of liking, but they failed. That is why I’ve decided to not produce anything and waiting for something to happen, and this film came’ said Rajasekhar, who broke into tears, as he remembered his mother.

Making some interesting remarks on why he makes films, Rajasekhar told some facts. ‘This film is like a marriage in our house. Generally, they say ‘pelli chesi choodu, illu katti choodu’. But none has said ‘cinema chesi choodu’ (produce a film). But you may ask, ‘who asked you to make films?’ None asked me, but it is my passion and madness for which I make (produce) films. Why would I come to films after finish MBBS? It’s just madness.

‘Due to madness, we’ve worked hard and made Garuda Vega, so please come to theatres and watch it. I’ve come to know that my films are getting good TRPs on television, but please watch this film in theatres. Like I said, making a movie is like performing a marriage, so please honor us’ he requested the audiences.

Director Shankar, the auteur who is known for making envy-inducing and awe-inspiring magnum opuses, is back with his new film, ‘2.0’, a sci-fi extravaganza made on a budget of over Rs 400 Cr. The film is being promoted as India’s first 3D science fiction actioner, it has an ensemble cast and crew as well. Despite all this, is Shankar doubtful of meeting audiences’ expectations?

Reports suggest that ‘2.0’ is going to be Shankar’s shortest film till date, with a runtime of about 140 minutes. It may be noted here that all of Shankar’s films thus far have nearly 170 minutes runtime. So, what prompted him to cut short his new film’s length by almost half an hour?

It is heard that Shankar has become cautious after his last release, ‘I’ received scathing criticism for its screenplay and runtime (188 minutes). Besides everyone, even Shankar understood that the film succeeded purely because of hype, promotions, technical brilliance and star cast. Hence he might have decided to keep runtime of ‘2.0’ in limit since 400 Cr is at stake.

Some say that Shankar has opted for a crisp runtime for 2.0 since he plans for a global release. Another theory is that Shankar compromised on runtime as the budget already overshot, and he would need another Rs 100 Cr to make a 3-hour film. Â

Whatever the reason might be, a film with crisp runtime has better prospects at box office compared to lengthy films, since the audience of this generation can’t tolerate even little lag.

Malayali actress Anupama Parameswaran, who is growing as a strong performer and a successful heroine with each film, opened up about the abuses she had to face while in college.

Speaking to media while promoting her latest film, “Vunnadhi Okate Zindagi”, Anupama said that every girl has to face teasing and abuses from lecherous men at some stage and that she was no exception.

“While I in college, I used to travel daily from hostel to college in bus. Some men would stand close to girls with the excuse of overcrowd, and try to touch them inappropriately. I don’t understand what pleasure they derive from such hideous acts. Sometimes the bus conductor also commit such vulgar acts. I got frustrated at times and would shout at them,” she reportedly said.

“Its not difficult for girls to understand who look at them with cheap intentions. Those men should think of their mothers and sisters while passing lewd comments at and touching women inappropriately in public places, especially in buses and trains,” Anupama said.

We have very few Telugu girls rocking on the Telugu screen right now as leading ladies, but once upon a time they dominated. The likes of Jayaprada, Jayasudha, Sumalatha, Gauthami, Bhanupriya, and Madhavi are the hotties of the 80s. And the one who became a superstar from this group is surely Vijayashanti.

With almost 175 films in her kitty, she took a break from acting to become active in politics and now likely to make a comeback. We all know how the pair of Megastar Chiranjeevi and Vijayashanti enthralled movie lovers. No one will forget the noise the duo made on screen with films like Gang Leader. Buzz has that she is all set to make her comeback to mainstream cinema with a pivotal role in Megastar Chiranjeevi’s next movie Sye Raa.

Tipped to be a periodic drama that revolves around the life and times of freedom fighter Uyyalavada Narasimha Reddy, the film already has Nayanthara, and Pragya Jaiswal playing the female leads. Reports are coming that Vijayashanti will be seen as Uyyalwada’s first wife, while Nayan will play his second wife, and Pragya only a member of his rebel group. But what is to be seen is, will Vijayashanti limit herself to such small roles?

Chiranjeevi’s Sye Raa is currently in final stages of pre-production and the regular shoot will start from December as per latest reports. Konidela Production Company is bankrolling this prestigious project which was supposed to start shooting on October 20th. Reasons for delay are currently not known.

Lavanya Tripathi who earned the ‘girl-next-door’ image with films like Andala Rakshasi, Bhale Bhale Magadivoy, Soggade Chinni Nayana etc., has been trying hard to find glamorous roles.After sending signals to the directors and producers by doing hot photo shoots and with hot public appearances, she finally got one glamorous role in Vunnadi Okate Zindagi.

As Meghana alias Maggie she played a gen x girl character in VOZ where she is seen wearing revealing outfits and boozing around.Despite her best efforts, Lavanya failed to leave a mark in this avatar. It was Anupama who walked away with all the laurels as the girl-next-door.

Anupama’s performance, screen presence and her magnetism turned out to be the major highlight of VOZ.Lavanya Tripathi just couldn’t match up with Anupama on any front and totally paled in comparison.Lavanya is definitely one of the talented actors out there, but she should be wise with her choices.Most of her recent films ended up as big flops and in VOZ she turned out to be one of the weak links in the film.