Actress Shruti Haasan who looked extremely out of shape in Pawan Kalyan’s ‘Katamarayudu’ looks to be back to her best avatar. She looks at her slender best in a latest photo shoot.

Shruti’s career is not so happening lately but the star kid claims to have no regrets. She claims to be enjoying the free time after having worked relentlessly over the last few years, and planning to expand her wings towards turning a pro musician.

In the meantime, she is also waiting for a right project to announce her comeback. She hasn’t signed a film after walking out of multilingual South biggie, ‘Sanghamithra’, which was launched at Cannes Film Festival this year.

Ace cinematographer Ravi Varman, who had walked out of Megastar Chiranjeevi’s ambitious film, ‘Sye Raa’, reportedly joined another huge project, Shankar’s ‘Indian 2’, a sequel to Bharatheeyudu.

‘Indian 2’ was recently announced on the Tamil Bigg Boss show by Shankar and Kamal Haasan. The film is likely to be bankrolled by Dil Raju. Some latest unofficial reports claim Dil Raju backed out and Lyca took over the mammoth project. Whoever the producer might be, ‘Indian 2’ is officially the immediate next project of Shankar, and the genius filmmaker has already started assembling the crew.

Ravi Varman, whose repertoire include visual masterpiece like ‘Cheliyaa’, Jagga Jasoos, Ramleela, 7th Sense, Dasavatharam etc. has earlier collaborated with Shankar for ‘Aparichithudu’. Shankar has once again roped him in for his next prestigious film.

It was heard earlier that Ravi Varman walked out of ‘Sye Raa’ owing to frequent delays and some creative differences. He is said to be delighted to bag ‘Indian 2’.

Meanwhile, Ratnavelu has reportedly replaced Ravi Varman for Sye Raa.

Mehreen made her debut with Nani’s Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Gadha and she signed many interesting films. She scored back to back hits with Mahanubhavudu and Raja The Great recently which made her stand in news.

Mehreen is quite a bit busy with many interesting projects and she wrapped up Sai Dharam Tej’s Jawaan, Sundeep Kishan’s C/O Surya recently. The latest update is that Mehreen was approached to offer a role to pair veteran actor Venkatesh in the film directed by Teja.

This action entertainer is expected to start from November and it was Kajal Agarwal who was considered for the role. With Kajal not able to adjust her dates, the makers approached Mehreen for the same.

The young actress for the first time is romancing a veteran actor in her career. Well, the role must be meaty with some prominence, otherwise Mehreen would have regret later.

It is already official that two films are going to materialize next year on the life of NTR Sr. While genius Ram Gopal Varma is making ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’, taking only the part of the legend’s life after the entry of his second wife, his disciple and a leading director, Teja is set to direct the biopic of NTR which showcases his entire life. Both these films are expected to go on floors in the first quarter of 2018. Before embarking on their respective films on NTR, the two maverick filmmakers will work each with a senior hero.

Teja is all set to take his new film starring Venkatesh onto floors. He will wrap up the film in the first quarter of 2018 and immediately start working on NTR biopic, which will be produced by and star Balakrishna Nandamuri. The script work has already been completed for this project.

Varma on the other hand will direct Nagarjuna Akkineni in an action film. Nag, who has become very choosy lately, giving his nod to RGV, who hasn’t delivered a credible film in ages, has surprised many. Nag however seems to have confidence in the filmmaker who gave him, and also to the Telugu film industry, a path breaking film named “Shiva”, of course almost three decades ago. After finishing this film, Varma will get back to ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’.

So, in a way, both the films on NTR will go on floors almost simultaneously, in the first quarter of 2018, and both the directors will be just completing a film each with a senior hero before that. Coincidence or its Varma’s strategy? Knowing Varma, one can not rule out the possibility of pitting ‘Lakshmi’s NTR’ against NTR biopic starring Balayya.

Lyca Productions, makers of Superstar Rajinikanth’s upcoming sci-fi visual extravaganza, ‘2.0’, have claimed that they were investing more than Rs 400 Cr on the film.

Recently, an official announcement has come that they were planning to hold a grand audio launch event in Dubai, for which a whopping Rs 12 Cr will be spent. A movie of such magnitude and expenses involved, has now been accused of not paying dues to the low-rung team members.

An Associate Director of ‘2.0’, who claims to have been working on the film for a year, has lashed out at the makers for non-payment of dues for months. He alleged on social media in a series of posts that the makers didn’t bother to pay his full dues even after he had claimed that his wife was five-months pregnant and that his son was sick. He claimed to have resorted to voice out his pain on social media after waiting for long for the clearance of his dues.

He added that he was not the one who spread fake news for the sake of attention. He said that a few people tried to school him that his future in Kollywood will be stagnated if he goes against a big production house like Lyca Productions but that he has decided to fight for his rights. He said several other Associate and Assistant directors face similar issues but no one dares to raise voice against top producers.

The AD’s allegations have created a storm in Kollywood. No one from Lyca has yet officially responded.

Talented actress Sai Pallavi, who shot to fame in the Telugu states with her debut film ‘Fidaa’, is reportedly deeply upset with media and people calling her a ‘mallu girl’ or a ‘Malayali heroine’.

Rumors erupted recently claiming that Sai Pallavi was in a relationship with a married Tamil hero. The actress didn’t take these rumors seriously but she was miffed with being called a Malayali. Sai Pallavi has reportedly made it clear that she was born and brought up in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, and that she was a true-blue Tamil girl. She requested media to address her as a Tamil girl and not a Malayali.

The reason for everyone assuming Sai Pallavi as a Malayali was her debut film, ‘Premam’, a cult Malayalam film which was also remade in Telugu with the same title. Her character from the film, Malar has become so popular that it probably made everyone think she is a Malayali. Her second film was also in Malayalam. Her third release, ‘Fidaa’ was a Telugu film. She is currently acting in Nani’s ‘MCA’. Her debut Tamil film, ‘Karu’ (Kanam in Telugu) is yet to release.

Ravi Teja, who has made a comeback with ‘Raja The Great’ after two years, has proved that his stardom hasn’t diminished even a bit. The film is rocking at box office and is predicted by trade analysts to become a super hit.

The mass hero has recently said that he would no more do routine action comedies and would ensure every new film of his has novelty. As per the latest grapevine, he is likely to team up with ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’ fame Kalyan Krishna for an interesting film.

It may be recalled that post the success of ‘Soggade..’, which had Nagarjuna essaying the dual roles of father and son, Nag asked the director to develop the backstory of Bangarraju character and promised to act in the film, which could be a potential prequel to ‘Soggade..’. It is very rare to see a prequel getting materialized in Tollywood. Later, when the director developed the script and approached the senior hero, he didn’t show keenness to do the film for some reasons.

Now, rumors are rife that Kalyan Krishna has made a few changes to the story and impressed Ravi Teja with the narration. The actor reportedly gave his nod as it was a long time since he did an out and out village-based entertainer. It will be interesting to see if the director retains the ‘Bangarraju’ title as Ravi Teja is now reportedly on board in the place of Nag.

It was a piece of cake for Nag to essay ‘Soggadu’ character considering his image. Can Ravi Teja recreate the chivalry of Bangarraju character that was immortalized by Nag?

Ravi Teja’s “Raja The Great” continues its consistent performance at box office. The Anil Ravipudi directorial performed exceptionally well on its third day, Friday, despite it being a working day, and took its 3 days gross in the Telugu states to Rs 20 Cr. In areas like East Godavari, Day 3 collections were reportedly higher than Day 1’s, which is incredible.

On Friday, the Ravi Teja starrer minted 3.47 Cr share and took its 3 days total share from the Telugu states to 12.91 Cr. The worldwide share stands a credible Rs 16 Cr. With Friday numbers being this huge, the film is expected to make merry at box office on Saturday and Sunday, and thus post incredible first weekend (5 days) total at worldwide box office.

3 days total Share break-up:

Nizam – 5,28,00,000
Ceded – 2,15,00,000
Nellore – 43,00,000
Guntur – 96,63,099
Krishna – 84,73,782
West – 75,30,500
East – 97,36,563
Uttharandhra – 1,51,00,000

Total 3 days AP & TS Share – 12.91 Cr (Gross – 20Cr)

Total 3 days Worldwide Share – 16 Cr (Gross – 26.5 Cr)

Gross in US by Friday – $207K