The Sankranthi film battle is turning political. What began as a battle between Babai and Abbai (Balayya and NTR) has now become a political struggle what with TDP leaders reportedly entering the fray to threaten the distributors of NTR-starrer Nannaku Prematho.

Now TDP workers have taken it upon themselves to ensure that Balayya Babu’s Dictator gets maximum number of screens in the districts.

What is worrisome is that the Babai-Abbayi fight is no longer a fight between two films. It is now affecting all the other Sankranthi releases.

The only saving grace in the whole affair is that it is an all Kamma affair. Yes. Everyone knows Balayya and NTR’s castes. Even Nagarjuna Akkineni and Sharwanand are from the same community. So the victor will be a Kamma and so will the vanquished be.

With the Dictator ‘dictating’ the terms, even Nag and Sharwanand is unable to get good number of screens.

Thankfully, no film of a hero from other caste is in the fray. Imagine what would have happened if there was to be a film from the Mega family!!

Akshay Kumar, who is getting ready to release Airlift later this month, is making it his third patriotic film in three years.

Akshay started with Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty in 2014. A year later he played a special agent in Baby and will kick-start 2016 with Airlift, which is based on the world’s largest human evacuation by any country.

“I didn’t really make an informed choice. I was lucky that I got these three wonderful scripts to work on. Now I’m eagerly awaiting Airlift,” he said.

The other big thing that everyone is talking about is his role in Robot 2 or Enthiran 2.

Akshay seemed excited about the film but he refused to talk about it.

“We will talk about it when the film is ready. Right now I have no authority to say anything. Do you want me to be out of contract on this film?” he quipped.

Reports say that Akshay plays the bad guy in the film but we will know for sure only once the Khiladi himself is ready to talk about it.

Robot 2 is a sequel to 2010 superhit film Robo, which starred Rajinikanth both as the hero (Dr Vaseegaran) and villain (his Robot named Chitti).

As Nag’s Soggade Chinni Nayana is getting ready to test the waters this Sankranthi, it has two big films to contend with.

What more, despite Nagarjuna’s best efforts to promote his film, helping hands, it seems, are hard to come by.

Though the film has an impressive casting including Ramya Krishna, small screen celebrity Anasuya and Lavanya Tripathi, only Lavanya seem to be helping him in the film’s promotions.

Ramya krishna and Anasuya dazzled at the audio release and then seem to have no role in the actual promotions.

Even the director is a new comer and has little role in promoting the films. Now, only Lavanya is trying to add glitz and hype to the movie.

Lavanya, of course, has a special relationship with Akkineni family. She even did a cameo in Manam and has personal friendship with Nag.

So, she alone is active in promoting Soggade….!!

No denying of Balakrishna’s crowd pulling capabilities as a hero of the masses, but the truth is he is not in the league of Jr. NTR at the moment.

Balakrishna could still pull some surprises at the box office but even his hit film’s collections cannot match to that of NTR’s average grosser. All eyes are on the Nandamuris clash that doesn’t mean this is a battle of equals.

Nannaku Prematho can blow away the competition if it strikes a chord with the audience and live up to the expectations.

Whereas Dictator cannot affect Nannaku Prematho in the same way until or unless the latter bombs miserably!

Nannaku Prematho is arguably the biggest film among the Pongal releases on any scale. The hype around this film is huge that sky is the limit if it lives up to it.

Many screens have been blocked by Dictator in Andhra and Ceded regions but it should get blockbuster talk to withstand the competition.

Balakrishna supporters and TDP loyalists will definitely try to do their best to damage the prospects of Nannaku Prematho. They could succeed only if NTR’s film misfires which look unlikely as the odds are in favor of Young Tiger.

Young Tiger NTR seem to have realized the importance of promotions for his Nannaku Prematho. The actor is promoting the film aggressively in the last few days. Few days back he threw a lavish party to media and the other day gave interviews to Print media.

Now the TV interviews of the film started today with Tarak and Jagapathi Babu talking to News channels. The movie will go to censor tomorrow and the Overseas Prints will be dispatched tonight.

Nannaku Prematho is the 25th film in Tarak’s career. Both NTR and Sukumar pinned high hopes on this film to bag a big blockbuster. Rumours suggest that the actor will be seen as an Interpol officer in the movie.

Energetic Hero Ram’s latest offering, Nenu Sailaja is steady even in its second week. The movie is putting up a good show even in Overseas too. On Friday, the movie had amassed $40,178 in USA on Friday which takes the total to $516,650.

This is the first half million film for Ram at the US box office after a very long time. Positive talk and reviews have helped the film at Overseas box office. Adding to that there are no notable releases in its second week except for Killing Veerappan.

Now the major challenge for the film is to hold decent number of theaters in Sankranthi season. As many as four notable releases are lined up for Sankranthi and there is severe crunch for theaters to accommodate them.

Nandamuri Balakrishna has become Hindupur MLA in 2014 elections and at the same time he is nearing up his 100th mark. There are several speculations about his possible retirement after 100th film, and pursuing a career in politics.

But the actor dispelled all these rumours last night. “I have no retirement plans. I will continue acting and will even compete with my son, Mokshagna and my grandson,” the actor said.

He even refuted about competition from other Sankranthi releases. Balakrishna said that he only competes with himself and that he is not competing with anyone else. He said he is completely confident of Dictator success.

Actress Sanjana is playing an important role and dancing in a Special song in Pawan Kalyan’s Sardaar Gabbar Singh. The actress already joined the movie shoot and worked with actor for some time.

The actress is raving about her experience with him. Recently, she came up with a tweet which goes like this- “Being a celebrity we all actors do but giving back to the society we learn from @PawanKalyan sir through examples”.

While fans are ecstatic that Pawan Kalyan’s fan club is increasing, Sanjana’s critics say the actress is trying to grab the attention of fans by buttering the actor and his fans. Sardaar Gabbar Singh is being readied for Summer-2016 release.