Even as Prabhas’ Baahubali: The Conclusion is yet to hit the screens, the news about his up next film – Prabhas 19 is making strong buzz in film circles. Since reports are rife that the film would be pumped in Rs 150 Crore and made in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi simultaneously, makers are leaving no leaf unturned to rope in noted Bollywood and Hollywood names for the film.

The latest is that Bollywood actor has been zeroed in on as baddie opposite Prabhas in the film. It’s none other than Vivek Oberoi. Vivek, who is also familiar in Telugu and Tamil, is going to act alongside Prabhas. Vivek has acted in Telugu and Tamil films such as Raktha Charitra and Vivegam. It’s learnt that powerful face-offs between Prabhas and Vivek are said to be highlight in the film.

Already, popular music trio Shankar Ehsaan Loy have been brought on board to compose music. Award-winning production designer Sabu Cyril is recruited for production design.

If this is not enough, well-known Hollywood stuntman Kenny Bates, of Die Hard and Transformers fame, is zeroed in on for action choreography.

Senior actress Pavithra Lokesh, who has become a busy silver screen mother in Tollywood in the past few years, has made some interesting comments on Ram Charan, Allu Arjun and Pawan Kalyan.

Among various other things, when she was asked about her working experience with young Telugu heroes, Lokesh said that Charan is a lovable, cool and lazy boy. ‘When I asked him about having babies, he said, ‘I myself am a baby, why should i have babies so early,’ she quipped. She played his mother character in ‘Bruce Lee’.

She called Allu Arjun a teaser. He is very active and always rags me on sets. ‘He calls me ‘Sweet Mommy’ and he is my favorite screen son. I am always excietd to play his mother,’ Lokesh said. She played Bunny’s mother in ‘Race Gurram’ and she is yet again essaying his mother character in DJ.

She will be next seen as Shruti Haasan’s mother in ‘Katamarayudu’. Talking about Pawan Kalyan, she said that she was aghast to see how fans are mad of the actor. ‘So many people come to the sets to meet him and they wait for hours to just have a photo with him. Now, I also became a fan of him,’ she added.

She called Sharwanand a natural performer, some one who always tries to better his acting. Talking about her crushes, Lokesh said that she had huge crush on Akkineni Nagarjuna and Prakash Raj.

Ram Gopal Varma is unbeatable at least on twitter while at box office audiences are always winning on him these days by rejecting his films in a roll.

Commenting on hero Tiger Shroff’s birthday wishes poster, RGV tweeted, “You (Tiger) are great at martial arts but if BRUCE LEE ever posed like a bikini babe like u he wouldn’t have become BRUCE LEE. Please think (sic)”, igniting anger in the fan circles of this hero. As he directly called Tiger Shroff as a Bikini Babe, they started giving lessons to Varma about what is macho and what is sexy.

Varma didn’t budge, rather he compared Tiger with his father Jackie Shroff. “You might have a six pack of muscle groups better than Jackie Shroff but his eyes and body language have far better many groups”. It’s heard that Tiger Shroff is seriously hurt with those comments.

Incidentally Jackie Shroff was with Varma that day as the two have launched the trailer of “Sarkar 3” along with Amitabh Bachhan.

This week’s new movies released have been romantically a feast for cinema loving audience. Heroines Pooja Jhaveri, Anu Emmanuel and Pragnya Jaiswal served a glamour feast in ‘Dwaraka, Kittu Unnadu Jagratha’ and ‘Gunturodu’ respectively. But what was more interesting than this regular glamour is Pooja Jhaveri’s two lip locks with Vijay Devarakonda in ‘Dwaraka’ and Raj Tharun lip kiss with Anu Emmanuel in ‘Kittu Unnadu.’

Having known for strict objection to exposing and skin show, Pragnya Jaiswal has also crossed the border line besides Manoj Manchu in commercial masala outing ‘Gunturodu.’ Unlike the other two films had hot lip locks, ‘Gunturodu’ served only a special feast for eyes in the form of Pragnya’s new hot looks.

What’s more worrying is, none of these three films got off to unique positive talk despite having such beautiful and co-operative heroines. After erasing the self created restrictions by upping the glam quotient, hope Pragnya is now open for formula based hero centric projects from now on.

The flick Nenu Sailaja has changed the image of Hero Ram as an improved actor. All his movies used to be highly energetic with dances and noisy dialogues. But the director Kishore took out the balanced Ram with his story and narration. Ram was seen as a settled actor in acting, dances, and dialogues. This change gave him much-needed hit after many flops. After that, he again scored a flop with Hyper. Taking a long gap for a director like Kishore, he is again teaming up with Kishore for an entertaining love story which will be completely opposite to Nenu Sailaja.

As of now, the script discussions are getting finalized. Soon they will start the pre-production followed by the regular shoot.

Like SS Rajamouli and Prabhas, producers of ‘Bahubali’ haven’t kept any other second commitment till the completion of magnum opus in two parts. Yes, the adventurous step taken by Devineni Prasad and Shobhu Yarlagadda believing in ‘Bahubali’ content investing hundreds of crores, highest ever for a South Indian film in the history stood up to all our expectations enlarging itself into a project of International standard.

As ‘Bahubali 2’ is all set for a massive release most probably in April month, what’s next from these producers? If reports are anything to by, ARKA Media Works is all likely to begin their new project starring Sharwanand as hero within this year under Kovelamudi Surya Prakash direction.

In the past, Prakash directed two flops ‘Anaganaga O Dheerudu’ with Siddharth, Shruti Hasan, Lakshmi Prasanna and ‘Size Zero’ with Anushka, Arya. Let’s see, what really excited Sharwa to team up with Prakash and ARKA?

The shooting of Prabhas’ upcoming film, directed by young filmmaker Sujeeth, is set to begin soon. It was earlier reported widely that the Telugu-Tamil-Hindi film would star Neil Nitin Mukesh as the prime antagonist. While it is unknown if he is still part of the film, it is learnt that Vivek Oberoi has been roped in for the film.

A few days back, the director and the producer met the actor and narrated the subject. “Vivek agreed to play one of the villains in the film. The makers want to focus on the Hindi release too, so they are roping in Hindi actors,” says a source. A search is on for the female lead. The source also reveals that they are planning to rope in Jackie Shroff for another important role. Since Jackie has previously acted in many Telugu films and is a also a popular face with the Hindi audiences, they want to rope him in as the other villain.

Pooja Hegde has become the new heartthrob of the industry post the teaser release of Allu Arjun’s DJ — Duvvada Jagannadham, where she was shown in a hitherto unseen sensual avatar. The film, directed by Harish Shankar, is reportedly going to portray the actress as an NRI.

“The film will explore an interesting love angle between Allu Arjun, who plays a vanta brahmadu and Pooja, who will be seen as a stylish diva. She plays an NRI who’s on a brief tour to India where she meets him. The story explores how things develop between them amidst other conflicts,” shares a source. Pooja’s last Telugu film was Oka Laila Kosam after she debuted with Mukunda.  Both films showed her in a traditional avatar.

Anushka Shetty’s weight is causing worry to quite a few directors. The actress put on nearly 20 kilos for the film Size Zero and is now trying hard to get rid of it. Though she lost some weight, she still appeared overweight when she attended a few film functions recently.

“The actress had a small injury while shooting for Singam 3 and from then on, she was on bed rest for a few weeks. Because of the injury, she could not exercise or go on a diet as she was on antibiotics which caused her to become overweight,” says a source.

The actress has apparently started her workouts recently and is now focusing on reducing her weight. “She looks lean in the upcoming film Bhagmathi when compared to Singam 3,” adds the source. Anushka plays the main lead in the female-centric film and the makers are planning to release a teaser soon.

Stylish Star Allu Arjun’s father and Mega producer Allu Aravind is reportedly planning to join hands with two other noted production houses belonging to the aides of Prabhas and hero Suriya. UV Creations and Studio Green respectively are the other two banners.

UV Creations is like a home banner of Prabhas. In fact, the production house made its foray in Tollywood with Prabhas’s ‘Mirchi’ only. Moreover, Prabhas’ highly anticipated project immediately after ‘Baahubali 2’, #Prabhas19, will be produced again by UV Creations on a mammoth budget of Rs 150 Cr.

Studio Green on the other hand is headed by Gnanvel Raja, a relative and close associate of hero Suriya. The banner has produced several big budget entertainers mostly starring Suriya and his younger brother Karthi.

As per latest reports, Allu Aravind’s Geetha Arts, UV Creations and Studio Green are now planning to collaborate to form a new production house. Their plan is to produce high budget Telugu-Tamil bilinguals, mostly starring Prabhas, Suriya and Allu Arjun.

Suriya is already a star hero in Telugu and Tamil states. Post ‘Baahubali’, Prabhas also is planning to make all his films as bilinguals to expand his market. Bunny has already put his debut Telugu-Tamil bilingual, a Lingusamy directorial, in pipeline. In a way, the new banner is a platform for these three stars to grow their market in both the Telugu and Tamil states.

Films starring other heroes may also be produced on the new banner.

The alleged feud between Tamil television host and singer Suchitra Karthik and actor Dhanush has taken a notorious development after the former allegedly posted a series of intimate pictures of Dhanush, and his friends.

Although they were deleted soon, these intimate pictures of Dhanush, Hansika, Trisha, Anirudh, noted TV host Dhivyadharshini, and others went viral on social media. After deleting these private pics, Suchitra made her Twitter account private.

One of these pictures shows Dhanush and Trisha taking a selfie and the other shows Anirudh and Andrea getting intimate. The pics also have Dhivyadharshini and Hansika in bikini.

Some two weeks ago, Suchitra accused Dhanush and his team of assaulting her. She even shared a pic of her bruised arm and also revealed about some sex scandal in a Coimbatore ashram.

After her vague tweets erupted confusion and controversy in South India, her husband, Karthik Kumar later revealed that the singer’s account was hacked and that she did not make those tweets.

“The last few days have been very disturbing for us as a family as Suchi’s twitter account was hacked. Today we have retrieved her account. All the tweets published last few days were not by Suchi and is completely false. I personally apologize to all the people concerned as I understand the stress it would have caused them. I request the media to show sensitivity and not sensationalize this. Thank you all for the support,” he clarified.

This latest act of leaking intimate pics has once again rekindled the whole issue.

Here is some interesting piece of news. Samantha has reportedly walked out of Ram Charan-Sukumar’s film. It’s learnt that the decision was mutual and the film’s makers too said to have approved with her choice.

According to grapevine doing rounds in Filmnagar, Samantha is contemplating to enter into wedlock with her beau Naga Chaitanya in advance than the original plan. The Janatha Garage actress is of the opinion that her wedding plans, her personal works would affect the shooting schedule of Ram Charan’s film that is expected to wrap up in blitzkrieg speed.

Sam said to have conveyed the same to the makers and director Sukumar is now hunting for a heroine opposite Charan. Initially, Anupama Parameswaran was tipped to pair up with Charan after shortlisting nearly 4 to 5 heroines, but in a shocker Anupama was replaced with Samantha as the former was too ‘young’ before Charan.

Samantha and Ram Charan haven’t worked together in a film so far. Many thought that this would be their first-ever film. But unfortunately, even this is not materializing. An official confirmation from the production is awaited soon. More details are yet to furnish.

Superstar Rajinikanth’s 1995 Tamil actioner “Baasha” re-released in theatres on Friday, and the film’s first audience were the 65-year-old actor’s wife Latha Rajinikanth and daughter Aishwarya Dhanush.

Latha and Aishwarya watched the film in a special red carpet premiere here on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Dhanush posted on his Twitter page that the excitement around the film’s release hasn’t changed.

“After 22 years, same excitement. ‘Baasha’,” he wrote, and added in Tamil a dialogue from the film: “‘Baasha’ never lets down good people; he’d only make them think.”

Directed by Suresh Krissna, “Baasha” is one of the biggest hits of Tamil cinema.

It featured Rajinikanth in the role of an auto-rickshaw driver and a don.

On Friday, special shows were organised by Rajinikanth’s fans in select theatres across the city.

Major multiplexes have allocated their biggest screens for the film, which has opened to much fanfare.

“I’m a huge fan of ‘Baasha’, but I never watched it on the big screen. This is the first time I got to watch it in a theatre and the experience has been electric. Nothing about the film has changed even after two decades. It’s probably the best commercial film,” Sai Kumar, an engineering student, told IANS.

Other celebrities who attended the special premiere of “Baasha” included actress Manjima Mohan, actor Hrishikesh and composer and singer Anirudh Ravichander.

Director Deekay says he still hasn’t finalised actress Kajal Aggarwal, but is seriously considering her for his next yet-untitled Tamil outing which will be a dark comedy.

“Kajal is definitely my first choice but I haven’t signed her yet. In fact, we haven’t signed anyone yet for the project. Everything is still in the discussion stage,” Deekay told IANS, confirming that it will be a dark comedy with ample thrills.

He also denied rumours that the project was originally planned with Nayanthara.

“A production house wanted me to write a script for a project with Nayanthara. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the script as planned and the plan fell through,” he said.

Deekay confirmed that a sequel to his 2014 sleeper hit “Yaamirukka Bayamey” is on the cards.

“The sequel is happening but I’m not sure whether I will direct it. I’ll be penning the script and one of my assistants might helm it,” he added.

Embracing the new trend, the makers of Pawan Kalyan’s upcoming film ‘Katamarayudu’ unveiled the first lyrical song from the movie.

Titled ‘Mira Mira Meesam’, this title song of the film is penned by Ramajogayya Sastry and sung by Anurag Kulkarni. The Anup Rubens tune doesn’t sound too impressive at the first hearing but the song is expected to connect with masses upon repeat hearings.

Sastry’s lyrics however are powerful and also reflect Pawan’s image as ‘People’s Politician’.

Ever since the news of Akhil’s engagement with designer Shriya Bhupal was cancelled and the couple’s wedding in May in Italy was called off, actor Nagarjuna is said to be in an utter shock. The actor is apparently very unhappy over it.

Nag, who is shooting for Raju Gari Gadhi 2, where he plays a mentalist, is said to be not talking much with unit members. He is just shooting for his portion, giving his shot when the shot is ready and just sitting calm, idle.

Usually, Nag would be very friendly with people on sets and would be free and interactive with all the unit members. But many say that it’s first time they’re seeing Nag like this.

This is not all. Nag also said to have changed his personal mobile number. Hope Nag will soon overcome this phase and let bygones be bygones.