Director Boyapati Srinu’s recently launched new movie with Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas is proving to be one more lavish project.

Generally, Sai ropes in star directors, top heroines and huge budgets for his films, all the way from debut Alludu Seenu. He is repeating the same in company of Boyapati, who also encourages grandeur.

If reports from film circles are to go by, a monumental setting worth 2.5 Crores is erected in Annapurna Studios for shooting the film’s first song.

Bellamkonda Sai and Rakul Preet Singh will dance to a mass and energetic song composed by Devi Sri Prasad while Prem Rakshit is the choreographer. Nearly 250 dancers from Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai are taking part in this song.

If producer Miriyala Ravinder Reddy is rolling such mammoth amounts for a single song, one can estimate the overall budget and glory in the final output. Nevertheless, Boyapati also roped Tamil star Sarath Kumar and Jagapathi Babu in important characters.

The first impression on this untitled entertainer is, Boyapati is assuring a big breakthrough for young Sai. On January 3rd, Boyapati is planning to release Sai’s first look from the film. Stay tuned for more updates.

When someone said Satakarni’s success is the responsibility of TDP cadre, we didn’t realize that it includes stopping of Khaidi No 150 pre-release function at Vijayawada.

Highly placed sources say that some TDP leaders are working overtime to file cases and raise objections to Khaidi’s pre-release function at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada, which is slated for January 4.

They want to ensure that the function is postponed if not completely stalled. So, Chiru’s Man Friday Ganta Srinivasa Rao swung into action and is talking to TDP leaders who are trying to get Khaidi show postponed. He is trying to convince them not to obstruct Chiru’s show. But, Balayya fans seem determined.

If they do not agree, mega camp is reportedly thinking of shifting the programme from Vijayawada to Guntur. But then, will all this not lead to a major caste war in AP’s real political capital Vijayawada and will it not have a ripple effect on caste tension-ridden Andhra Pradesh? Vangaveeti has already left one cast group quite sullen.

Will Satakarni add fuel to the fire?

Superstar Mahesh Babu, who is currently busy working on A.R. Murugadoss’s yet-untitled Telugu-Tamil bilingual, on the occasion of New Year’s Day announced his line-up of films for the calendar year.

Calling it the most exciting phase of his career, Mahesh wrote on his Twitter page: “Working with director Siva Koratala for Mahesh 24, with Vamshi Paidipally for Mahesh 25 and Mahesh 26 with Trivikram.”

With Koratala Siva, it will be Mahesh’s second film after the blockbuster “Srimanthudu”, and it will be his third film with Trivikram after “Athadu” and “Khaleja”.

Mahesh and Vamshi will be teaming up for the first time.

He wrote that he is really looking forward to the release of his film with Murugadoss.

“My dream of working with super cool director Murugadoss has finally come true,” he added.

Currently on a holiday with his family in Europe, Mahesh will join the sets of his ongoing project from January 7.

When Chiru planned Khaidi No 150, he conceptualized several promotional ideas and Meelo Evadu Koteeswarudu is one among them.

MEK is a hugely successful show that suave and sophisticated Nagarjuna hosted. His demeanor made this one of the most watched TV shows.

When Chiru wanted to do this programme as part of promoting Khaidi No 150, Nagarjuna stepped back and paved way for Chiru.

Chiru shot several promos, which were aired in Maa TV. But, the response seemed lukewarm. Chiru couldn’t simply match Nag. Since them, the launch of fresh version of MEK has been getting postponed on some pretext or the other. Both November and December passed without the MEK being aired. Now people have almost forgotten MEK.

Sources say that Chiru is worried that if the MEK fails for some reason, this could rub off on Khaidi No 150. So, he withheld MEK. Sources say that if Khaidi becomes a hit, it would create a positive buzz for MEK and wants to wait till then.

So, even after off loading their shares, it’s Chiru and Nag who call the shots in Maa TV.

Nara Rohith’s Appatlo Okadundevadu might have got good reviews. But the film is struggling hard to get ample theatres.

As per the trade, the film has no sufficient number of theatres and this may turn a major hindrance for the film to have commercial success.

Industry insiders are blaming the ‘Big 4′ for the situation. Buzz is that major distributors who have maximum number of theatres in hand via lease system are not cooperating the films that have good content.

While Suresh Babu has had his theatres for Pitta Goda, Allu Aravind is not moving Dhruva out of theatres. Other hand Dil Raju is adamant and holding his theatres for Nanna Nenu Na Boyfriends where as Abhishek Pictures’ Abhishek is having his Vangaveeti in his theatres. Also, Producer BVSN Prasad managed to get good theatres for Allari Naresh-starrer Intlo Deyyam Nakem Bhayyam.

While Appatlo has an edge in multiplexes, also it is not easy for Rohith as he is facing hurdles with more multiplexes preferring Aamir Khan’s Dangal.

Since Nizam is considered as very crucial to decide a film’s success, Nara Rohith is battling against all odds to get more screens but in vain. The film is having very difficult time as there are no enough theatres to screen the film in Nizam.

The situation is no different in few parts of Andhra and Ceded. As many other single screens which operate on rental basis have been bought over by Saptagiri Express in AP and the producer is in no mood to give it up.

Despite poor talk, Saptagiri Express said to have improved well in this week and hence its producer wants to continue the run of his film. However, situation there is slightly better for Appatlo.

On the whole, the theatres’ mafia is said to be turning detrimental for a genuine good film like Appatlo Okadundevadu.

On other hand, it’s heard that the situation may improve for the film as few distributors agreed to increase the number of screens for the film from Monday. Let’s wait and see what’s in store for Appatlo Okadundevadu.

Here’s the ever ravishing Chennai beauty Trisha partying along with her close friend, the Nigerian designer Sidney Sladen and another girl friend. Trisha’s black bikini and her Nemo tattoo trying to sneak in and pose make for her sensuous photograph.

Just when everyone thought that Trisha’s career has ended, the actress bounced back with back-to-back female-centric movies and even gave one to her career best performances in Dhanush’s Kodi.

With Baahubali, ace Telugu director Rajamouli has provided enough confidence to the filmmakers across the nation by proving that if one can make an appealing film catering to largest audiences possible, even hundreds of crores of investment can be recovered.

Sensational director Shankar is already making Rajinikanth’s 2.0 with a staggering Rs 400 Cr budget. Given the names of Shankar, Rajini, Akshay Kumar and AR Rahman, the budget looks recoverable with decent content. On the other hand, a Tamil production house has now surprised everyone by announcing to invest Rs 350 Cr on a film having relatively less popular names.

Tamil director Sundar C has planned a project titled Sanghamitra. He reportedly claimed that his film would be made on a bigger scale than of Baahubali and that producers have come forward to invest Rs 350 Cr believing in his script.

Although the director had initially claimed to have been in discussions with Suriya, Vijay, Mahesh Babu etc. to play lead in his project, he finally settled with Jayam Ravi and Arya. The only big name in this project is AR Rahman.

Sundar has directed several successful films but all were medium budget films. Neither Jayam Ravi nor Arya is considered a star hero even in Tamil Nadu. Trade people hope that Sundar has an astonishing subject to pull off this project and land the makers in safe zone.

Voluptuous Telugu beauty Anjali always finds herself in numerous rumours and controversies no matter how hard she tries to distance herself from bad light. The actress is once again back in news and this time with rumours surrounding her marriage.

According to the latest reports, Anjali will be tying the knot with Tamil star Jai very soon and settle down in life. Incidentally, Anjali and Jai had earlier teamed up with each other in the highly successful film Journey.

Even though there were constant rumours about her relationship with Jai, Anjali had never rubbished them openly, making her love life indirectly official. Also, certain corny tweets exchanged by both of them on Twitter added fuel to the fire.

Meanwhile, Anjali has also slowed down on signing any new projects in Telugu and Tamil. She had only 2 Telugu releases in 2016, Dictator and an item song in Sarrainodu, while Chitrangada is yet to come out of the shelves.

In December, the makers of Megastar Chiranjeevi’s comeback film Khaidi No.150 faced a setback when they couldn’t manage to get permission to hold the film’s audio launch event at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Stadium (IGMS) in Vijayawada following a High Court order.

This left the film’s unit to drop the plans to organize the audio launch event altogether and instead they planned for a huge pre-release event on January 4th, surprisingly at the same venue. Ram Charan even released a video inviting fans to event. And again, the team has got yet another shock.

Local authorities have denied permission to the film’s team to organize the pre-release event at IGMS citing High Court’s previous order where the court, in its response following a writ petition 38639 of 2015, stated that IGMS should not be given for any purpose other than sports and games.

Now, this led to a war of words between the Mega fans and the Nandamuri fans. While the Mega fans alleged that Balayya and Chandrababu are behind this last minute setback keeping the epic clash between Khaidi No.150 and Gautamiputra Satakarni this Sankranthi, Nandamuri fans countered them saying that the government is only honoring the High Court’s order.

Some Nandamuri fans even reminded that the 175th day function of Chiranjeevi’s Indra was held at the same venue with the then Nara Chandrababu Naidu as the chief guest more than a decade ago. Meanwhile, Khaidi No.150’s pre-release event has now been shifted to Guntur.

Looks like the ever reclusive film star turned politician Pawan Kalyan is slowly opening up on Twitter of late. Apart from a series of tweets targeting several state and central leaders including prime minister Narendra Modi, Pawan, for the first time on Twitter, tweeted his appreciation for a film.

The film that caught Pawan’s fancy now is the Bollywood’s latest blockbuster, Dangal. Pawan took to Twitter just a while ago and poured his heart out in appreciation of the movie that not only touched him but the entire country.

Pawan hailed Dangal’s main star Aamir Khan for his sublime performance and went on to state that India should be proud of having a wonderful actor and a captivating storyteller like Aamir Khan.

Pawan also had a few good things to say about the four young actresses who played the female wrestlers Geeta and Babita Phogat and also appreciated the film’s director Nitesh Tiwari for executing the film in an engrossing and a manner.

Finally, Pawan said that Dangal is a reminder to all of us to recognize and work towards the much needed ‘Women Empowerment’ which lacks in our country. Incidentally, Aamir Khan, during his Dangal promotional interview in Hyderabad, expressed his wish to act alongside Pawan Kalyan.

The alleged family feud between Nandamuri Balakrishna and Jr NTR is quite popular in film, political circles alike. However, the benefit shows of Jr NTR’s latest release Janatha Garage saw good number of Balayya fans catching the benefit shows in the wee hours. Naturally, Balayya fans had not left an opportunity unturned to chant slogans for Balayya.

Balayya fans have chanted ‘Jai Balayya’ , ‘Jai Balayya’ in the theatre much to the surprise of NTR fans who were initially put in a spot as they didn’t know how to respond but joined Balayya fans after a while.

Similar scene was said to be repeated in many theatres where the benefit shows of Janatha Garage were showcased.

Demand and pre-release business will usually be high for star heroes, irrespective of any negative factors surrounding the project. Likewise, distributors are in queue to purchase theatrical rights of Mega Power Star Ram Charan’s Dhruva for their zone, despite the fact that buzz is low on the project.

Except for few posters the makers haven’t released any content as of now which is the reason for low buzz on Dhruva, although the film is in last stages of production. Teaser of the film directed by Surender Reddy will be unveiled for Vinayaka Chavithi.

Even though, Dhruva is billed to be a stylish action entertainer, the film is doing gigantic business in mass areas. Ceded rights of the film have been sold for massive price of Rs 9 crores.

Dhruva Anantapur rights were sold for bit higher price than the tomorrow releasing film Janatha Garage. While NTR starrer made 1.83 Cr, Charan’s film has fetched Rs 1.93 crores for producer Allu Aravind.

Hindupur, Kadiri and Guntakal rights were sold for 63 lakhs, wherein Kadapa business is closed for Rs 1.9 crores.

Janatha Garage storm has taken over overseas box office. The collection tally has already surpassed $ 250K mark in US even before the first premiere was screened.

The opening day number is going to be huge for sure. With Janatha Garage already surpassing quarter million mark in US, what would be its final figure from the premieres?

Trade is expecting this film to beat Sardaar Gabbar Singh’s record and take the second place on all time biggest openers list.

NTR’s recent track record has made him a very big star in the overseas market. Badshah and Temper grossed over a Million dollars and Nannaku Prematho grossed over Two Million in US. If Janatha Garage lives up to the expectations, 3 Million would be on cards.

Here is the list of biggest grossing movies from US premieres. Let’s see where Janatha Garage would end up by Thursday night.

1) Baahubali – $ 1.5 Million

2) Sardaar Gabbar Singh – $ 615K

3) Brahmotsavam – $ 560K

4) Srimanthudu – $ 535K

5) Aagadu – $ 507K

Although he has created a stir in Andhra Pradesh’s politics with his recent public address in Tirupathi, Pawan Kalyan will be staying away from high pitch celebrations of his birthday.

On the other hand, his fans are gearing up for big hungama on 2nd September on the eve of his birthday across Andhra Pradesh.

Since Pawan Kalyan has announced that he will start building Jana Sena party henceforth and will also tour all districts in Andhra Pradesh demanding special status for AP, many political leaders and wannabe politicians expecting positions in Jana Sena party are planning huge activity on September 2nd.

But like always, Pawan Kalyan doesn’t want to celebrate his birthday with fans or politicians. He will be staying away from the hungama.

On the other hand, couple of producers including S Radhakrishna who is going to produce a film with Trivikram and Pawan Kalyan are planing to announce their projects officially on that day. But our sources say, they didn’t get nod for this from Pawan Kalyan.