Megastar Chiranjeevi’s younger daughter Sreeja, who married NRI businessman Kalyan in March last year, looks all hale and happy with her new life partner. On the eve of Diwali, here is a lovely family pic of Sreeja, her husband Kalyan and daughter Nivruthi, a child from her first marriage.
Meanwhile, buzz says that Kalyan is getting trained to make his silver screen debut as lead hero.
The suspension of Kurnool MP Butta Renuka and her announcement to extend her support to ruling TDP may not be a surprise development. While YSRCP is leveling a series of allegations against Butta, Butta remains tight-lipped and maintains that her support to TDP is for the development of her constituency and providing water to the people.
However, politically, what exactly went wrong between Butta and Jagan. Whose fault it was? Was it Butta’s mistake? Or Was it Jagan’s inability?
Before going into what led to Butta Renuka locking horns with Jagan, YCP, first check out the timeline of crucial events in YSRCP.
Around 20 MLAs, two MPs and several senior leaders including Mysoora Reddy, Sabbam Hari, Gattu Ramachandra Rao, Jupudi Prabhakar Rao have quit. The list goes on and on. So Butta Renuka isn’t first neither last. It is heard that many YSRCP leaders and a few MLAs are contemplating to follow the suit. Interestingly all leaders who have quit YSRCP, have blamed Jagan’s autocratic nature and his disrespect towards his party leaders, seniors. So, Renuka differing with Jagan didn’t come as surprise.
Meanwhile, the wide talk that is heard in political circuits is the differences between Jagan and Butta. Allegedly, Butta and Jagan have some mutual business interests that got affected in the recent times. Apparently, this have not gone well with each other. Pro-Jagan media has targetted Butta and this followed her suspension from the party. While Butta has not formally joined TDP, she publicly extended her support. This is a severe jolt to Jagan and a major embarrassment to his party.
Keeping aside whose fault it was, Jagan Mohan Reddy is at the receiving end as his party is already on a downward spiral after Nandyal and Kakinada polls.
After drawing attention with interesting posters of Keshava, Abhishek Pictures is back with yet another curiosity-raising pre-look design of their forthcoming film Sakshyam. The film marking the collaboration of Sriwass and actor Bellamkonda Srinivas is said to be high on technical standards and yet it is very close to nature. The film primarily focuses on the five principal elements of nature – Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether (Space or Akash).
These five elements said to be playing crucial part in the film. And hence, the film has been given a tagline ‘NATURE IS THE WITNESS’. Apart from this, the pre-look poster is made by paying attention to very minute details. Locales such as Kashi, Dubai, US, temples which play major role in the film have been infused brilliantly in the poster. The whole background of the poster resembles cosmos, the eye-shaped cave indicates the film’s title – Sakshyam.
DJ beauty Pooja Hegde will be seen as Srinivas’ romantic interest in the film. Featuring Jagapathi Babu in a prominent role, the film also stars Ravi Kishan and Kannada actor Madhu Guruswamy.
Noted dialogue writer Sai Madhav Burra is penning dialogues for this interesting script. It’s learnt that the film belongs to a new genre which Sriwass hasn’t made earlier.
Acclaimed action choreographer Peter Hein will be directing the action scenes. While Fidaa music director Shakti Kanth is composing music, Arjun Reddy musician Radhan will be providing the BGM (Background Music) for Sakshyam.
Actress Kriti Kharbanda, who played the love interest of Pawan Kalyan in ‘Teenmaar’, has confessed that she was a victim of sexual harassment.
From the past couple of days, social media is flooded with messages tagged #MeToo. This campaign has started across the world after several Hollywood actresses have recently opened up about the sexual harassment they were subjected to by legendary Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
The #MeToo campaign has since been embraced by women and men around the world, as they started sharing the horror tales of the sexual assault they have faced, be it in childhood or as adults. The impact of this campaign is so significant that apart from regular folks, even celebrities have started posting messages, using the hashtag #MeToo.
From Tollywood, Kriti is the first celebrity to open up. Even though she didn’t divulge at which phase she had to forbear that heinous situation, she nonetheless confessed to be a victim. “#metoo sad. But true,” she posted.
Several celebs from Bollywood have so far shared messages tagged #MeToo.
Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, the first sportsperson to receive Bharat Ratna award, the highest civilian award in India, and the current Rajya Sabha MP, is all set to do the hat of comic book hero.
In their bid to cash in on Sachin’s popularity among children and young readers, the publishers of his autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’ have come up with the plan of refurbishing a section of the book in order to project the iconic cricketer as a comic book hero.
The abridged version will have elements that should attract children. The comic hero portion which will be of about 25 pages, will carry some of the most exciting cricketing events of Tendulkar’s life such as his heroics in Sharjah cup in 1998, his maiden ton at Lords, 2011 World Cup glory etc.
This shortened edition, meant to cater exclusively to the children, will be half the size of the original 486-page autobiography, and it will be hitting the stands in a week or two. Sachin’s autobiography was released in 2014.
Anil Ravipudi’s previous two films were commercial hits. After Patas and Supreme, the young director has come up with Raja The Great in which the protagonist is a blind person. Raviteja played the blind character in his typical style. The film has good comedy, but on a whole it ends up as an average fare because of illogical scenes and hardcore masala elements.
Story :
Raja (Raviteja) is a blind man who wants to become police. He takes up a secret mission to save Lucky (Mehreen) whose life is in danger because of a dreaded goon Devaraj. How Raja saves her from him and keeps her happy for the rest of the life forms rest of the story.
Performances:
Raviteja is good with his typical antics. His characterization is done well unlike usual blind protagonist characters. Raviteja’s energetic portrayal and his timing work well in comedy scenes. Mehreen is a bit overweight. She should take care of her looks. Her performance is alright. The actor who played Devaraj is pretty mediocre. Tanikella Bharani is entertaining. Radhika makes an impact as hero’s mother. Srinivas Reddy as hero’s sidekick is good. Sampath Raj and Prakash Raj are apt in their respective roles.
Technicalities:
Anil Ravipudi once again picks up a routine storyline sans any novelty. Even the blind protagonist doesn’t bring anything novel to the table. The director relies heavily on comedy situations and thankfully a good part of those scenes have come out well. Besides comedy, there is nothing to take home.
Sai Karthik’s soundtrack is very ordinary. Except for the title song, none of the songs appeal to the viewers. Background score also is average. Cinematography is decent. There is nothing special from anyone behind the screen. Even the production values are just okay for Dil Raju’s standards.
Thumbs Up:
Thumbs Down:
Analysis:
It is a good idea to present a blind protagonist in an entertaining way. However, that doesn’t mean one has to take the illogical route to keep the viewers entertained. Besides being visually challenged, there is nothing ‘Great’ about the lead in this film. It is a regular hero character from any commercial film.
Story lacks meat and the director depends upon comedic situations to keep it moving. There a few comedy episodes that have come out well. But the film fails to engage whenever it shifts to action mode. Routine fights, weak villain and illogical scenes will make the ‘thinking audience’ cringe in their seats. ‘Leave your brains out’ should be the tagline for Raja The Great as there are too many unbelievably silly scenes especially towards the climax.
A blind man chasing villains by boarding a running train is outright laughable. A feared and powerful villain failing to take on a blind man is far from believable. Despite such silliness, the comedy works in parts. Episode on Posani and co is a laughing riot. A bank heist episode involving Rajendra Prasad and Prithvi also is fun. Raviteja’s natural antics and his style of humor keep the film from ending up as a dud.
Director should have presented the clash between the hero and villain in an entertaining and novel way rather treating it like a masala affair. One would expect minimum logic with a blind protagonist. Anil Ravipudi has simply taken it for granted and treated it like a regular mass masala film. The film drags on and on even after the story is concluded. Raja The Great has some hilarious scenes, but besides that it fails to impress on a whole. Its success will depend upon how B and C centers audiences embrace it.
Verdict: Raja… Very Average!
Pawan Kalyan, who took special care in launching his sister’s son Sai Dharam Tej, will also be setting stage for the grand debut of Sai Dharam Tej’s younger brother Vaishnav Tej. Vaishnav happens to be Pawan’s Chinna Alludu.
Apparently, Pawan will listen to the scripts and will finalise one good script for Vaishnav’s debut which is expected to happen in 2018.
Meanwhile, Vaishnav is honing his acting, dancing skills. Also, he is learning skills in stunts to perform on screen. Since Pawan himself is a great martial-arts performer, he suggested Vaishnav to learn them. Although he is pretty busy with his political outfit Janasena and his own films, Pawan is said to be allotting time for his nephews.
Ever since Siva Balaji won the Bigg Boss season 1 title in Telugu, there has been a wide promotion of him in media across several platforms. Although he hasn’t bagged any interesting films yet, a section of media is surprisingly promoting him so much.
Speculations in film fraternity are rife that some powerful network is behind Siva Balaji. The other day his birthday bash too got wide publicity taking many by surprise.
Buzz is that a few are continuously promoting him for their own personal reasons. Apparently, some big contacts in Mumbai are wanting to endorse Siva Balaji. However, will this really help Siva Balaji bag more films? Will more noise bring him more roles?
As we have reported earlier, the first reception for newlyweds – Naga Chaitanya Akkineni and Samantha was held in Chennai the other day.
Senior producer Daggubati Suresh Babu organized the reception for his nephew at his residence on behalf of his sister and Chaitu’s mother. It was a private affair and was attended only by the entire Daggubati family members, including Venkatesh, Rana and Chaitu’s mother. Their relatives flew from Guntur, Krishna and Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh to take part in the special event. A few Akkinenis were also among the attendees.
Nagarjuna plans to hold the second reception in the first week of November in Hyderabad. Unlike the just-held one, this will be a grand reception to be attended by who’s who from film industry and Telugu states’ political belt.
Balakrishna and Boyapati Sreenu’s Legend released in Summer 2014 was a blockbuster. Not just at the Box Office, politically too, the film did help TDP to have a smooth sailing.
Many, including political pundits and TDP’s leaders, opine that the film has played its role in 2014 general elections in AP. It is opined that both the film and TDP have benefited from it.
Cut to present. Ram Gopal Varma’s Lakshmi’s NTR is being produced by YSRCP leader Rakesh Reddy. With RGV is on a spree of meeting YSRCP leaders, it is buzzed that YCP is behind the film. Although Varma vehemently denying it, the recent events – including RGV’s meeting with Brother Anil – indicate otherwise.
Now, the moot question is can Lakshmi’s NTR be YSRCP’s Legend? Let’s wait and see.
TDP Supremo and AP CM Chandrababu Naidu has finally responded on the ongoing controversy over Ram Gopal Varma’s Lakshmi’s NTR.
Chandrababu has broken his silence and spoken to TDP party-workers at an internal party meeting in Amaravati on Tuesday.
Chandrababu asked TDP leaders and partymen not to over-react on Lakshmi’s NTR film. Chandrababu has told them to maintain calm, peace.
“RGV has been meeting only YSRCP leaders. People are observing this. So, please do not make any comments and give unnecessary importance to it. Telugu people love NTR and remember him for his good deeds. Nobody can change the people’s opinion,” Chandrababu Naidu told in a meeting with partymen.
