Visakhapatnam: Actor Allu Arjun and director Boyapati Srinu got stuck in a lift at the Sri Varaha Narasimha Swamy temple on Simhachalam hill here on Friday morning.

Allu, Boyapati and production manager Satyanarayana got into the lift after offering special prayers at the famous temple. Security staff were escorting them in the lift to downstairs, when the lift developed technical snag and halted in the middle, police said.

The temple officials had a sigh of relief after the security personnel broke open the door and brought them out safely.

Superstar Mahesh Babu’s Brahmotsavam has finished its first week run at the box office. The movie after a very ordinary first weekend, registered horrendous figures all over the working days and is heading towards being South India’s Second Biggest Disaster after Rajinikanth’s Lingaa.

The trade is expected to lose more than 40 Crore on the film. They are demanding that the producers – PVP and Mahesh Babu should refund some amount to compensate for the losses. Currently the negotiations are going on about that. Here is the breakup of Brahmotsavam First Week Collections:

Nizam: 8.35 Crore
Ceeded: 2.65 Crore
Uttarandhra: 2.15 Crore
East: 2.42 Crore
West: 2.48 Crore
Krishna: 1.66 Crore
Guntur: 2.74 Crore
Nellore: 90 Lakhs

AP+Nizam: 23.35 Crore

Leading Tamil Magazine has given review for a Telugu movie for the first time. This clearly shows the star power Mahesh Babu has across the boundaries. In the review, they have praised Mahesh Babu and criticized Director Srikanth Addala. The review reads as follows.”A House full of relatives.. Colourful lightings.. Some blah blah sentimental dialogues.. Exclusive fight for Mahesh Babu… makes the perfect Family drama ‘Brahmotsavam’. Don’t get scared if some one from fourth row calls you as brother…

Because in each scene, some one will be calling ‘Brother, Sister, Brother in law.. and so on.. Three gorgeous actress lighten up the screen. But even all three of them are saying.. “Mana naanaa.. Mana Inti..” and that tests our patience. The movie has a costly Junior artist list and the whole junior artist will be extended to nearby screen !

Simple story. Senior actors. Sentiment for each scene and this is typical SVSC template. But the emotion factor is missing here. The movie turns out to be a costly serial. The travel in the second half is a good idea.But as there is nothing interesting in screenplay, that also falls flat. Mahesh Babu often has “Next Door Boy” image even in Tamil Nadu, so he must be careful before choosing such lifeless scripts !

Director Nag Ashwin, who wowed critics and audiences alike with his Telugu directorial debut “Yevade Subramanyam”, will next helm a Telugu-Tamil bilingual biopic on the life of late legendary southern actress Savitri.”The film has been titled ‘Mahanati’, and it’ll be a magnum opus period film set in the golden era. With massive set pieces, the film will be unlike anything we’ve explored in Indian cinema. I’ve just finished the script and should finalise the cast soon,” Ashwin told IANS.

Asked why a biopic on Savitri and not on any other popular actress, he said: “There have been countless actresses over the last 80 years in Telugu cinema but none have earned the title of Mahanati, and even today it has solely been reserved for Savitri”.Born on January 4, 1936, Savitri made her acting debut in 1950 Telugu-Tamil drama “Samarasam”, and went on to star in several classics such as “Devadasu”, “Missamma”, “Penin Perumai”, “Pasa Malar”, “Bhale Ramudu”, “Thodi Kodallua, “Mayabazaar” and “Gundamma Katha”.

Besides donning the greasepaint, Savitri also directed a few films such as “Chinnari Papalu”, “Chiranjeevi” and “Mathru Devatha”. She was even a popular playback singer.Ashwin feels it’s time to revisit and understand why Savitri was considered a legend.”From penniless origin to the first female superstar, her life is quite a story. We are in that moment in time where it’s been long enough that the legends have left us, that we will have to revisit them and understand why they are legends,” he said.

Although Telugu audiences haven’t experienced the concept of a biopic, Ashwin is nevertheless confident.”The story and the character of Savitri is so script like, it has got it’s emotional thread so strong that I’m very confident that audiences will relate to it. I feel stories need to have a certain value to be made into cinema and this story has value on so many levels – historic and emotional,” he said.

Ashwin spent the last six months in research – reading articles, books, meeting old journalists and actors.”There was so much drama in her life. She lived her life fully and I will be as honest as possible in my attempt to recreate it,” he said.Though there was tragedy in Savitri’s life, Ashwin wants his story to be a celebration of the veteran.”She was a comedian, prankster and the funniest person. I want the story to be a celebration but not tragic or serious. I want to enjoy and celebrate this amazing legend,” he added.

That “Brahmotsavam” is a dud is not at all secret. On the very first day, the film’s result was known to everyone but producers, distributors, exhibitors didn’t expect that theaters would turn empty within daysThe movie was lifted off from many theaters in Hyderabad and Ceded area after the weekend with low turnout of audiences.Mahesh Babu has seen some flops like “Aagadu: and “1 Nenokkondine” in recent times but this one has fared very bad across all regions including in overseas.

While “Aagadu” and “1 Nenokkadine” had performed well in USA by grossing more than 1.50 million dollars each, “Brahmotsavam” has barely touched one million dollars.The film will be pulled out in many centers from today. So it won’t be adding much here after to its tally of collections.

The first week collections in all regions..

Nizam – Rs 8.35 Cr
Andhra – Rs 12.8 Cr
Ceded – Rs 3.01 Cr
USA – 4.05 cr ($ 1,092,0750)
Rest Of Overseas – 1.25 Cr
Karnataka – 3.50 Cr
Rest Of India – 1 cr

Total – 33.96 Cr

Milky White Beauty Tamannah Bhatia has joined the league of ‘senior heroines in heroine centric films’ bit late. Her contemporary actors such as Anushka, Nayanthara etc had achieved hits with female oriented films, wherein Tamannah apparently feels Abhinetri is the right film. AL Vijay of 1947: A Love Story and Nanna fame is directing the movie.

Hollywood veteran director Paul Aaron is co-writing the Telugu-Tamil-Hindi trilingual film that has Prabhu Deva playing male lead. Paul Aaron is former stepfather of actor Keanu Reaves and his1979 film ‘The Miracle Worker’ won a Golden Globe nomination.Vijay had met Paul Aaron through a common friend in Los Angeles when he was there for the sound mixing of his previous film Saivam which was remade as Dagudumoota Dandakor in Telugu. It is learnt that, Aaron had watched Saivam and then both had decided to work together.

Both had locked a story and worked on the script for the past three years.Buzz is that, Tamannah is gaining weight for the film, since her director asked to do so. SS Thaman, GV Prakash Kumar and a Bollywood music director are working for Telugu, Tamil and Hindi versions respectively for the film scheduled to release in July.