Veteran Bollywood actor Om Puri passed away at 66, after a heart attack at his residence in Mumbai.

The demise of Om Puri was first confirmed by Ashoke Pandit, his long time friend, on Twitter. He tweeted that, “Sad & shocked to know that versatile actor Om Puri jee has expired due to heart attack early morning today. #RIP.” He was found dead in his bed at his home.

Having won several film fare awards and Padma Sri to his credit, Om Puri went on to be part of Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Pakistani, Marathi, Bengali and English cinema as well. The veteran also acted in Telugu film ‘Ankuram’ (1993).

His demise has provoked an outpouring of tributes from entire film fraternity including Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar, Kamal Haasan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani and Mahesh Bhatt.

If reports are to be believed, media legend Ramoji Rao is admitted in hospital after complaining on viral fever, back pain and respiratory issues. It is heard that Ramoji Rao has been admitted in Yashoda hospital in Somajiguda and is being treated.

Ramoji’s health is heard to be stable and he also had some light food on Wednesday. Team of doctors under the supervision of Senior physician Dr NV Rao along with Pulmonologist Dr Navneet Sagar is taking care of Ramoji Rao.

It is clearly evident that Ramoji Rao limited himself to supervision rather participating in Eenadu group and ETV events like before. News about Ramoji Rao being admitted in hospital reached out late and Eenadu group employees too were kept unaware about the same.

Given the disciplined healthy lifestyle and best doctors attending, Ramoji Rao is expected to get discharged from hospital very soon.

An English leading daily’s tabloid article sparked everyone’s attention today. According to the story two biggest grossers in Prince Mahesh’s career were rejected by top mega heroes Power Star Pawan Kalyan and Mega Power Star Ram Charan.

Says the media Mahesh’s blockbuster film ‘Srimanthudu’s story was initially narrated to Ram Charan by the director Koratala Siva. However, the Mega power Star turned down the script. Similarly, Mahesh’s industry hit film ‘Pokiri’ story was narrated by Puri to Pawan Kalyan and later to Ravi Teja. Finally, Mahesh lapped up the opportunity. Mahesh’s ‘Athadu’ was also initially written for Pawan Kalyan but it was written off by the Power Star.

Likewise, Raj Tharun missed an opportunity to be starred in super hit film ‘Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada’. ‘Manasantha Nuvve’ starred by late Uday Kiran, was supposed to be done by Mahesh under MS Raju’s production but the project couldn’t get materialized with the combo.

Megastar Chiranjeevi’s comeback film ‘Khaidi Number 150’ is just five days ahead of its release. Despite the film nearing for release, surprisingly, no such signs of theatrical trailer’s launch are noticed.

It’s being said that the trailer might be launched during the pre release event of the film which is scheduled tomorrow at Haailand.  However, inside circles are speculating theatrical trailer may not  be unveiled by the makers. Perhaps, this could be strategic act from the makers. In fact, the movie doesn’t need any sort of aggressive promotions, as Chiranjeevi’s name itself is a worth of million bucks in movie’s promotions are concerned.

Directed by VV Vinayak, the movie was bankrolled by Mega Power Star Ram Charan on Konidela Production Company. Devi Sri Prasad has scored the tunes of the film. The movie has Kajal Aggarwal in female lead role. Shriya will be seen in a crucial role in the flashback  episode of the film.

Mega Prince Varun Tej’s ‘Mister’ teaser was released recently and got amazing response from the viewers. Srinu Vaitla’s movies are usually made as regular commercial entertainers. ‘Mister’, however, made the difference with its feel good romantic content and this has been reflected in the teaser edit of the film.

‘Mister’ teaser, as of now, was viewed by 2 millions and the number is till raising rapidly. This, further, indicates how well the teaser garnered everyone’s attention. “Thanks a lot for such positive feedback!..so kicked!!,” Varun Tej expressed his delight.

Lavanya Tripati and Hebah Patel romanced with Varun Tej in ‘Mister’ which has got its music scored by Mickey J Meyer. the script of the film was penned by Gopi Mohan. Nallamalupu Bujji has produced this much awaited film from Varun Tej.

Megastar Chiranjeevi is back with a bang. Advance bookings of the film were open for a couple of theaters in India and abroad. And the response is terrific. It is learnt that 8 Shows were confirmed in Sydney from Wednesday and the ticket prices were confirmed as $32.95. Seating capacity maybe 358. If 100% fulls are recorded Wednesday gross in Sydney could be $23592.2. Until now, 90% fulls were recorded for Wednesday evening shows. Advance bookings were open for Urvashi theater of Bengaluru and the response is superb.

It is learnt that the film will be screened at 11 pm on 10th of January in Ahmedabad while an early morning show at 2 am on January 11 was planned in Hubli. It remains to be seen which theater in India will screen the film first.

Meanwhile, the pre release event of ‘Khaidi Number 150’ will be held on Saturday, at Haailand. This VV Vinayak’s directorial venture was produced by Mega Power Star Ram Charan on Konidela Production Company.

Here is a crucial update of SS Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali 2’. The film will get its shoot wrapped up on January 6. Young Rebel Star Prabhas, the protagonist of the movie, who have been working for both versions of ‘Baahubali’ for the past five years, has finally appeared to have got his fetters released

Young hero Rana, Anushka and Tamannah have done other lead star cast of this folklore entertainer. The movie was produced by Prasad Devineni and Shobhu Yarlagadda on Arka Media Works. Keeravani composed the music of the film. April 28 was the scheduled release date of the film.

Hurried for his next film Prabas is on set to do strenuous workouts to get his weight reduced to 20 Kgs to get Athletic body for his next film. The movie will go on sets in the month of March under Sujeeth’s direction.

There is a reason Nandamuri fans to be buoyant and exuberant with the news we have just received from First Frame Entertainment’s sources. The production house has confirmed the release date of the film as January 12 as a huge Sankranthi gift for Balayya’s fans.

As we reported earlier, the film got its censor formalities completed and received U/A certificate without a single cut. Racy screen play of 2 hours and 14 minutes is likely to be an advantage for this historical magnum opus.

Directed by Krish ‘Gauthamiputra Satakarni’ has vetertan bollywood’s dream girl Hema Malini, who played the role of Balakrishna’s mother as Gautham Balasri. Shriya Sharan will b seen as a princess. Chirantan Bhatt’s music score impressed the patrons to the core.

Megastar Chiranjeevi’s Khaidi No.150 is set for a humongous release on the 11th amidst huge expectations. The film is directed by VV Vinayak, who had earlier directed Chiru’s super hit film, Tagore.

VV Vinayak, in an interview recently, revealed a few amusing tidbits about the making of Khaidi No.150. After Chiru assigned Vinayak the job of directing the movie, Vinayak watched the Tamil original Kaththi and felt that the Telugu version needed comedy.

A few days after Vinayak narrated the full adapted script to Chiru, the Megastar had called him and said, “Vinay, I want Brahmanandam”. Even before Vinayak could fathom Brahmi’s presence in the script, Chiru went on to suggest that Brahmi’s character should doubt him while his character always lands Brahmi’s character in trouble.

Immediately, Vinayak created a separate track from Brahmi and he now says that the comedy scenes featuring Brahmi and Chiru have come out superbly. Incident, both Vinayak and Brahmanandam need a solid hit to resurrect their careers and let’s hope that they will get the much needed hit this Sankranthi.

Young hero Nikhil’s career is in rapid upswing with last film ‘Ekkadiki Pothavu Chinnavada’ declared as a super hit with high ROI. Immediately, he went back to work on next assignment ‘Keshava’ in direction of Sudheer Varma of ‘Swamy Rara’ fame. The action drama and revenge based script produced by Abhishek Pictures on high budget is laced for March release.

Meanwhile, makers have officially announced that ‘Keshava’ Nizam rights are sold to Sunil Narang of Asian Enterprises for a whopping undisclosed price. Actually, Nama Abhishek and Sunil Narang were partners early on in film distribution and exhibition business. Later on Abhishek entered into film production with ‘Keshava’ buzzing very strongly.

Ritu Varma of ‘Pelli Choopulu’ fame is acting as heroine. ‘We have received tremendous offers from other regions and business for all the areas is almost closed,’ producer Abhishek Nama informed.

Balakrishna’s historical 100th film Gauthami Puthra Satakarni completed the crucial censor formality a while back in Hyderabad. As expected, Censor members have lauded the film for its awesome visual brilliance, Balayya’s powerful performance, amazing re-recording (sound mixing) and extra ordinary VFX before awarding U/A certificate fixing the runtime at 2 hours 15 minutes.

To remind here, Krish and Balayya have wrapped up the magnum opus in very short time span. Shooting four mind-blowing war episodes or re-creating the ancient historical time period was a challenge.

Anyways, the film has reportedly come out with top quality and Censor members could not stop pouring the appreciations, lauding the team work.

This is what can be called a dream run where a hero beats his own records by self. Aamir Khan needs a meager Rs.36.42 Crores from ‘Dangal’ to beat the highest lifetime business of his own film ‘PK.’ As per official trade sources, ‘PK’ lifetime business is Rs.340.8 Crs while ‘Dangal’  total till 4th Jan is Rs.304.38 Crs.

Coming to a detailed breakup, ‘Dangal made Rs.197.54 Crs in first week and in second week it minted Rs.106.84 Crs in India totaled to Rs.304.38 Crs. In overseas market, ‘Dangal’ sat on gold mine pocketing $23.31 million (Rs.158.70 Crs).

Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the film on wrestling emerged as 2016 top grosser crossing Salman Khan ‘Sultan.’ Despite demonetization, ‘Dangal’ delivered a strong statement to entire world that quality entertainment in India is always sale-able.

Nandamuri Balakrishna’s landmark 100th film Gautamiputra Satakarni has been censored. The regional CBFC board has passed the film with no cuts. The film has been certified with U/A.

The two-hour fifteen minute film will boast grand visuals and battle scenes dominate most of its run-time.

Scenes involving Shriya Saran and Balakrishna and Hema Malini, Shriya Saran are going to be highlights besides the battle episodes and performance of Balakrishna, say the sources close to the film’s unit. Also, the film’s makers feel that the movie is going to be the pride of Telugu cinema.

Touted to be a historic epic, the film chronicles the life and times of India’s mighty warrior Satakarni and Satavahana dynasty. Director Krish has zeroed in on ensemble cast to make it more engaging.

Now that the censor issue has been resolved, the film is all set for release on Jan 12th. Given that it’s clashing with Chiru’s Khaidi No. 150 at the BO, all eyes are on both these films.

After wrapping up long schedule in Ahmedabad, Mahesh Babu has went for winter holiday with family to Switzerland. The actor has just returned from the short trip and will be joining the shooting of the film from Jan 7th in Hyderabad.

A massive set is erected in the city to accommodate the shoot of Mahesh-Murugadoss film. It’s learnt that the set is very crucial for the film as the major portion of the shoot would be done in it.

For the first-time, Rakul Preet Singh would romance Mahesh and the film is tipped to be an action drama. Although reports are rife that the film is tentatively titled as Sambhavamai, it’s heard that Mahesh & Murugadoss have kept the option open and still looking for a better title.

Meanwhile, rumours have it that Mahesh would make it to Khaidi No. 150 pre-release event which we learnt that there’s no truth in them as Mahesh would be busy with shoot of his film.

Telugu actress Hema has said that she will support the Kapu movement led by Mudragada Padmanabham and added that she won’t back off even if Telugu film industry banishes her.

Speaking on the sidelines of Kapu Women Meeting in Kakinada, Hema questioned AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over his alleged negligence on Kapu reservation issue. She demanded that Naidu should fulfill his election promise of Kapu reservations that was mentioned in his party’s manifesto.

Without beating around the bush, Hema questioned why TDP leaders from other communities who are opposing the Kapu reservation now, remained silent when the top brass of TDP had highlighted Kapu reservation issue in the election manifesto.

She concluded that she will support the Kapu agitation irrespective of what tollywood has in store for her.

It is known that Hema contested the 2014 general elections on Kiran Kumar Reddy’s ‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ party ticket and lost the elections to TDP candidate.