Filmmaker Koratala Siva says capturing highly talented stars Mohanlal and Jr NTR in a single frame and working with them in forthcoming Telugu action-drama “Janatha Garage” gave him a cinematic high.

“Every filmmaker wishes to work with and capture Mohanlal and NTR in a single frame. The kind of energy their mere presence brought to ‘Janatha Garage’ is nothing short of a cinematic high,” Siva told IANS.

Describing their on screen performance as “electrifying”, he said: “It was a treat to watch them share screen space. When it comes to performance, not many stars complement each other the way these two have in the film.”

The film, which is slated for release on Thursday, was exclusively written for Jr NTR.

“Even in the ideation stage, I believed he was the perfect choice. When he heard the script, the way he reacted, and the way he expressed, pumped me up. As a director, it’s very important that his actor expresses how excited he is about the project. NTR knew exactly how to get me excited and I strived hard to maintain that level of excitement throughout the shoot,” he said.

Having already worked with stars such as Prabhas and Mahesh Babu, Siva said he capitalised on Jr NTR’s strengths.

“He’s a very expressive actor. All the heroes I’ve worked with so far have their own styles. NTR too has a unique style and I didn’t try and tamper with it. Instead, I used it in a way it hasn’t been portrayed before,” he said.

While many wondered at the inclusion of Malayalam superstar Mohanlal in the project, Siva chose to explain saying: “A lot of people asked why not an actor from Telugu industry in the place of Mohanlal. I won’t answer that question. However, I’d like to tell them why Mohanlal… It’s because I wanted an actor of his stature for the role.

“I also realised somewhere that both NTR and Mohanlal, who make a great combo, share some similarities,” he said, and added that Mohanlal instantly gave his nod upon hearing the narration.

“Janatha Garage” is coming after back-to-back blockbusters “Mirchi” and “Srimanthudu”, and Siva is confident of its success.

“More than the pressure, I’m curious about how audiences will receive the film. I feel like a school boy who is anxiously waiting for results,” he said and clarified that he isn’t bogged down by box-office pressure.

“We are all driven by success. Every filmmaker wants his film to succeed and I’m no exception. However, I don’t get involved in the box-office numbers game because I feel it’s a baggage. I make a film that’s very close to my heart. My team and I should believe in it,” he said.

In the film, Jr NTR fights to protect nature, and explaining the purpose behind it, Siva said: “He plays a guy who loves nature. We’ve not tried to make a film on social awareness. Within the commercial trappings, we’ve included a social element.”

The film also stars Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Nithya Menen, besides multiple supporting actors.

Newly-wed groom Krish Jagarlamudi, who recently tied knot with Dr Ramya in nuptial knot, has returned to work on Monday. Krish has begun the fourth schedule of Nanadamuri Balakrishna’s most-awaited Gautamiputra Satakarni and the film’s shoot is going on in Madhya Pradesh.

Shriya Saran, who will be seen as queen Vaashishtha Devi opposite warrior Balayya, has joined the shoot of the film. Yesteryear heroine and dream girl Hema Malini, who essays the role of mother Gautami to Balayya, too participated in the shoot. Apparently, Krish is making sure that the film would touch emotional chord in the sentimental scenes as already high-octane action episodes were shot well.

Recently, we reported that Krish has roped in Chirantan Bhatt as music composer in replacement to Devi Sri Prasad. Simultaneously, graphic works are going on to finish the historical epic on time. Director Krish is leaving no stone unturned to release the film on the eve of Sankranthi i.e on Jan 12, 2017.

Here is the ever serious Pawan Kalyan captured with his usual intensity as the warm evening sunlight on his face adds to his fire. The photographer behind this strikingly candid image is none other than his ex-wife Renu Desai.

Just a while ago, Renu tweeted this picture and said “This was clicked by me in 2010. I had just bought my #5d #Canon & caught him sitting quietly, thinking, staring into the setting sun rays”

Renu went on to say “I love d intensity of his eyes/look in this,hence it’s my fav! Also d skin tone is original &not edited by me.” Well, even though the inevitable divorce separated the ex-couple, they still maintain the warm relationship between each other and this tweet is yet another proof to it.

Naga Chaitanya gave an early morning birthday gift to his father Nagarjuna and fans on the occasion of Nag’s birthday. This morning, Chay released the video teaser of the super hit Evare song from his upcoming movie, Premam.

While it is already proved that Premam’s team has stuck to Malare’s original composition and repeated the same music composer Rajesh Murugesan and singer Vijay Yesudas for Evare, they brought in the much needed and a refreshing change to Evare by picturising the song in a beautiful foreign location.

However, the makers have succeeded in maintaining the beautiful emotions that were felt in the original in the Telugu version as well. Chay and Shruti look like fitting replacements for Nivin Pauly and Sai Pallavi, who stole the hearts in the original.

We have been reporting about Naga Chaitanya and Samantha’s love affair and how they got blessings from both sides of their families.

Recently there were speculations that Daggubati Suresh Babu and their family was not positive about this marriage and Naga Chaitanya’s mother is also reconsidering her decision. Naga Chaitanya’s mother is Suresh Babu’s sister. But these speculations turned out to be false.

They are happily readying up for marriage early next year. They are not even hiding their relationship status. At Nimmagadda Prasad’s daughter’s marriage, both Nag Chaitanya and Samantha were cynosure of eyes as they came together accompanied by Nagarjuna and Amala.

Buzz is that entire Nagarjuna family is now treating Samatha as Kodalu and she is enjoying the status. But there is confusion over when will be their engagement. Some say it would happen by end of this year. But insiders say the marriage will only take place next year, so engagement will be a month before the wedding date.

She is back. Samantha has started promoting her latest film ‘Janatha Garage’, putting an end to rumors and speculations that she is not happy with the team.

Samantha has completed her shooting part for the movie long back and she has no movie on her hand. Despite so much free time, she didn’t attend the audio launch of ‘Janatha Garage’ but the next morning she was seen attending an event in Bangalore. This sparked off many rumors.

As the release day is nearing, she has now joined NTR to promote the film. She is now giving TV interviews and actively promoting.

But Samantha is evading the most important question – when would she get married to Naga Chaitanya. So far the in TV programs she recorded for, she stuck to the movie and nothing else.

Samantha has played NTR’s love interest in the film along with Nithya Menen. Directed by Siva Koratala, ‘Janatha Garage’ is set for 1st September release.

We have reported in these columns recently that the Andhra Pradesh government is coming out with a new policy to curb publicity through wall posters all over the state. The latest information is that the new rule is coming into effect from September 1.

According to this rule, it is not possible for any organisation to go in for publicity through indiscriminate pasting of wall posters. This will hit the film distributors below the belt. Though all posters might not necessarily be of films, most of those depending on pasting of wall posters belong to film industry. It would help film producers to get into the people without spending crores of rupees on publicity.

With the new rule coming into effect from September 1, the first film that would get affected will be Janata Garage, starring Junior NTR, which is releasing on the same date.

There is a talk that the Telugu Desam Party government in Andhra Pradesh was acting with vengeance on NTR and his films.

It is an open secret that some bigwigs in the TDP government made an attempt to deny availability of theatres to release NTR’s film Nannaku Prematho on Sakranthi this year.

Naturally, one would get the doubt that the Chandrababu Naidu government might have brought in the wall poster rule only to deny publicity to NTR’s film. Is it coincidental or deliberate?

Young Tiger NTR is busy promoting Janatha Garage which is slated for a September 1st release. Yesterday, the actor gave an insightful interview which was aired on several TV channels.

After asking about his association with Malayali stalwart actor Mohanlal, the interviewer asked NTR if he is ready for more multi-starrer films with other leading Tollywood stars. To this, NTR said that he is always ready to act alongside our star heroes.

However, NTR also said that he would consider doing a multi-starrer provided he is offered a solid script by a capable director who can handle two or more number of heroes at once and extract the best performances out of them.

NTR further said that he doesn’t believe in the concept of star image and said that he is ready to act in even a small role in a multi-starrer if his character touches his heart.

The Young Tiger concluded saying that he is open to acting in other language films as well since he believes that cinema itself is a language in itself.

For star heroes, it has been a big time trend in Telugu Industry to render dialogues about greatness of their family or father or grandfather et al. Even as the frenzy for such dialogues continues, we are very soon to see our industry come off such stuff. Director Koratala Siva, who is busily promoting his upcoming Telugu film Janatha Garage, has made an interesting revelation on these lines.

“We have stars asking us not to turn up with dialogues elevating their clan/father/family since it’s drawing a huge disapproval from movie-goers and they are all set to break the fad,” reveals filmmaker Siva while speaking to media folks in Hyderabad. It’s not very unpredictable to guess who would asked the writer-turned-filmmaker to skip them (conventional-family-elevating-dialogues) in their films.

With new-age films like Pellichoopulu and Kshanam making waves with great content, isn’t it a liberating move by our heroes? However, audience were always ready to embrace stars and their films even without intense and monotonous family sentiment dialogues.