The TS govt. which recently permitted the exhibitors of Baahubali 2 to screens 5 shows per day, has now disappointed everyone by prohibiting the holding of benefit shows in the state.

Telangana state minister for Cinematography Talasani Srinivas Yadav said that the govt. has not given permission for any exhibitor to hold benefit shows and that strict action would be taken if any theatre management doesn’t oblige the directives. The govt. order has come as a big disappointment to fans of Baahubali 2 who expected to watch the movie during the benefit show itself.

Yadav also said that the govt. ruled out the permission to hike ticket prices.

Bollywood star hero Akshay Kumar has always maintained that he is a stuntman first and an actor next. His name has always been associated with action. A black belt holder in Taekwondo, he taught martial arts before becoming an actor. He has always batted in support of stuntmen and now Akshay has set up a unique initiative for them.

Akshay has instituted a first-of-its-kind insurance scheme for the stuntmen and stuntwomen. The scheme is the brainchild of Akshay Kumar and noted cardiac surgeon Ramakanta Panda, who operated on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. The scheme is going to cover 380 stuntmen between 18 and 55 years of age.

So far, there has been no such insurance scheme for stuntmen across any film industry in India. Akshay, Dr Panda and their team has worked on the scheme for about five months before making it a reality. Akshay strongly believes that stuntmen and women work very hard and take life-threatening risks and hence they should be insured.

As per the policy, a stuntman will be covered for Rs 6 lakhs in case pf physical injury and Rs 10 lakhs in case of death.

The controversies that the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has embroiled in the past few years are too many. The classic example is last year’s Bollywood film ‘Udta Punjab’, which was released after the makers approached the court. Now, the CBFC has received another embarrassing blow.

The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) has directed the CBFC to grant an ‘A’ certificate to Hindi film “Lipstick Under My Burkha”, which was earlier denied a certificate. The film was dubbed by the censor board as too “lady oriented” in content and refused a certificate citing the film’s sexual content.

Responding to the makers’ appeal, the FCAT said that CBFC “misdirected themselves in denying certification on the ground that the story of the film is women oriented. There cannot be any embargo on a film being women oriented or containing sexual fantasies and expression of the inner desires of women. If the aspect of sexual desires and their expression is sensitively handled without bringing coarseness, vulgarity or obscenity, pandering prurient tendencies, then it is not to be disallowed.”

CBFC is losing its significance as filmmakers continue to prove how old fashioned and imbecile its guidelines are.

The team of Baahubali was allegedly “harassed” on flight. None other than producer Shobu Yarlagadda took to Twitter to share his unfortunate experience and alleged that the whole team of Baahubali have been ‘racially discriminated’ while they were flying on Emirates Flight EK526 from Dubai to Hyderabad.

“Flying to Hyd on @emirates EK526. Airline staff at gate B4 were very rude n harassed our team unnecessarily! Bad attitude n service! I think one of the @emirates staff was being racist.. I fly @emirates regularly n this is 1st time I have come across this kind of attitude,” Shobu wrote on his micro-blogging page.

While there is no info yet on what exactly happened, it’s learnt that the Emirates staff were “rude” and “harassed” the team unnecessarily.

Baahubali team went to Dubai to promote their film Baahubali: The Conclusion that is releasing on April 28.

The madness for tickets of Baahubali 2 is at peaks in the entire country. People are unable to book tickets even with advance booing as websites are crashing and almost all shows are showing housefull. At such hour, if a person offers a ticket free of cost, he or she will surely be revered as a deity.

Warangal district collector Amrapali has done the unthinkable as she has booked 500 tickets for Baahubali 2’s first day first show at a multiplex in Warangal. And, she has gifted those tickets to her subordinates who have impressed her with their dedication in making Warangal a beautiful city.

Amrapali’s admirable act is receiving applause from every corner. People might be wondering, why don’t they all have bosses like Amrapali?

Despite touching 34+ years age and losing her stardom nearly 8 years ago, heroine Shriya Saran is still a hot topic in film circles. While she has films in one hand, her hot appearances at various events also garner attention all the time. Guess what, she spoke about her fling thing now.

A couple of months back, Shriya was seen walking out from the back door of a Mumbai-based restaurant with West Indies cricketer Dwayne Bravo. Later when Dwayne is asked about those linkup rumours with the actress, he said she’s just a friend. When quizzed about the same, Shriya said, “We’ve met only on a couple of occasions. I don’t know him well. He’s not even a good friend of mine”. That’s truly a shocker.

People who know the whole of happiness do say— “They have gone on a lunch date on a couple of occasions. But things didn’t work out really. Since then Shriya is maintaining a distance”.

Anyway, Shriya will soon join shooting of Puri Jagan’s latest movie that has Nandamuri Balakrishna in the hand.

Ever since Allu Arjun’s DJ was announced for June 23 release, it is strongly believed that Superstar Mahesh babu’s upcoming film ‘SPYder’, which was earlier slated for that date, would be postponed.

Now, a fresh rumor has emerged in film circles that makers are considering to release the action thriller on August 9, which also happens to be Mahesh’s birthday. There is no official confirmation on the same but the development is wildly circulating among fans and movie lovers.

The date doesn’t look a possibility as Thala Ajith’s Vivegam is currently scheduled for August 10. As SPYder is a Telugu-Tamil bilingual, it is bound to have a simultaneous release in both the languages. Tamil distributors and exhibitors would hardly show any interest if makers of SPYder dare to clash with an Ajith starrer.

Interim,unfazed about the release date rumors, Murugadoss is completely focused on shaping up a product that meets the staggering expectations on his combination film with Mahesh.

Apparently, a WhatsApp message is doing rounds which is seeking Mega fans to abandon “Baahubali 2” on the first four days. This is in connection with the way both AP and Telangana governments have given special permissions to this film.

The message reads: “Mega fans, ignore watching Baahubali 2 in theatres for a week at least. For Khaidi No 150 we’re not allowed to screen premiere shows and benefit shows. Same repeated with Katamarayudu as well. But for Baahubali2, AP government allowed 6-screenings per day and also sounded positively for ticket hike to 200 rupees. So ignore Baahubali 2 to make everyone understand how the governments are being partial for only some people”

And when we checked with many fan groups, they have started that in fact, they got this message couple of days ago. Well, there may be a strong reason for fans to ignore the film but on other side, there is no need for ignoring or over-liking any film. And films like Baahubali happen only once in centuries, so it’s better to not have such hatred.

Remember how the collections of Jr NTR’s Dammu are affected big time in Krishna District when a fan war erupted inside Nandamuri camp and SMS are circulated to boycott the film on the first day. We have to see what happens!!

Apparently, from the last couple of weeks, director Rajamouli and his Baahubali gang are busy promoting Baahubali 2, but most of the times they are seen exclusively on National television.

Coming to print and web medias, only one media house that is associated with the film’s finances got special interviews of the whole team including Rajamouli, Prabhas, Rana, Ramya Krishna, Anushka, Senthil, Kamal Kannan and others.

With these happenings, resentment started growing among web and print media houses as to why Rajamouli is neglecting local Telugu media a lot. Taking a last minute action on this criticism, Rajamouli has today organised a special interview for all web and print media houses in the afternoon. Will this last minute action cool down our media folks? Maybe yes.

Cut to the film, Baahubali 2 is going to take down the whole of tinsel town by a storm as almost all the theatres are screening the film without leaving any gap for others. We have to see how many number of days are needed for the breakeven of 350 crores.