Rajnikanth’s last film ‘Lingaa’ was a disaster at the box-office. Directed by KS Ravi Kumar, the big-budgeted movie failed to impress. But the remarkable thing about the movie was that it was made in four-five months only.

This is no normal feat for a huge budgeted film with stars like Rajnikanth and a Bollywood heroine like Sonakshi Sinha in it.

Rajni has now completed shooting for his next film ‘Kabali’. The amazing thing about Kabali is that this too was shot in only 120 days despite schedules overseas.

Normally big-budgeted movies down South take a period of time to complete. But Rajni is setting a different trend now. This approach will save the producers a lot of money.

Rajni himself at the audio launch of ‘Lingaa’ in Telugu said, “ Hollywood people take a lot of time for pre-production, sometimes even a year or two. But once they go on location, the movie is completed within a very short span of time.”

It looks like Rajni is implementing the same approach back home.

Films of South India’s ace director Shankar are known for songs with breath-taking visuals and unbelievable sets. Unfortunately, ‘Robot 2.0’ isn’t going to have many of them for a reason. As per sources close to the Unit, Shankar made up his mind to make ‘Robot 2.0’ with only one song.

He took this measure to avoid delay in the making of talkie portions & action blocks. As Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson are some of the busiest stars in the country, Shankar wishes to complete the combination scenes and stunts involving them as early as possible.

If required, Makers will be altering the ‘One-Song’ Formula after the completion of talkie portions and shoot a couple of duets. Quite surprising to know that a Rs 250 crore Southern flick features just one song. After all, Indian Films are popular for the song-n-dance routine.

Currently, Filming of some sci-fi action sequences is going on at a Rs 20 crore worth set erected in EVP Theme Park, Chennai. Both Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar have been taking part in the shoot.

Sridevi is certainly missing her elder daughter Jhanvi Kapoor as the Mother-Daughter were unable to spend time together on this special day due to prior commitments. Apparently, March 6th happens to be the birthday of future Superstar Jhanvi! To celebrate the occasion, Sridevi shared an adorable childhood picture of her daughter on the micro-blogging page and wrote, ‘Missing you Janu.

Happy Birthday! #JanhviBirthday’. In the photograph, Jhanvi who was seen in a typical South Indian traditional attire sports a bald head. How cute is this Star Kid here? Jhanvi Kapoor is currently focusing on her Academic career.

The 19-Year-Old will follow the footsteps of her Mother any time soon. Already, She transformed into a hottie by hitting the gym regularly and even developed a good fashion sense by joining as an intern with Bollywood ace designed Manish Malhotra.

Its just a matter of time Jhanvi fills the vacuum left by her Mom to emerge as a Gen X Glamour Queen!

Currently acting in two of the most awaited films, Sardaar Gabbar Singh and Brahmotsavam, gorgeous beauty Kajal Aggarwal revealed an interesting tidbit about the only one aspect that troubled her in the initial stages of her acting career.

Apparently, Kajal is one girl who never cried and doesn’t even remember if she cried when her mom used to slap her in her childhood. This troubled Kajal in her acting career to a great extent as she could not emote well in emotional scenes which demanded her to cry.

Failing to cry after trying hard, Kajal used to take glycerin’s help to complete the scenes. However, things changed now and Kajal, now a 10-year old veteran in films, now doesn’t even require glycerin to act in emotional scenes as she cries naturally.

Apparently, Kajal’s friends on several occasions cried watching her crying on screen and thinking that she again took glycerin’s help. Kajal credits her decade long experience for this feat and states that she has learnt it the hard way in films, be it acting, dances or even crying.

Pawan Kalyan is dubbed as a Media-shy public figure for a reason. He had given quite a few interviews in the two decades long film career and continued to walk in the same path even after transforming as a politician.

Some how, A popular Bollywood Film Critic managed to obtain the appointment of Pawan Kalyan at the time when he wasn’t willing to entertain local media & meet any politicians. Anupama Chopra, an author, journalist and renowned film critic, is all to interview Pawan Kalyan Today in Hyderabad for Film Companion.

She even invites the Fans of Powerstar to send her the questions of their choice. What topics does Anupama Chopra cover in the interview session? Will she be solely focusing on Pawan’s film career and his popularity? or Would she try to concentrate on untold secrets in the actor’s personal life? or Was she on a mission to know about PK’s political aspirations? This Exclusive Interview is worth the wait…!

Pawan Kalyan’s Sardaar Gabbar Singh has got a surprise guest to the sets. It’s none other than Pawan’s mother Anjana Devi. Anjana Devi paid visit to Sardaar set recently and spent some valuable time on the location.

Despite soaring temperature, Anjana Devi was there on location for quite sometime. Anjani Devi, who came to see the shoot and bless Pawan, apparently amused seeing Pawan as Sardaar. Pawan too was so professional and he’s totally focused on the shoot.

Only once he was done with his shot, he came to her mother and spent time with her. On lookers had festive time seeing both doting mom and son. He might be Power Star and God to fans, but to mom, he’s loving son.

Meanwhile, the shoot of Sardaar is progressing at blitzkrieg speed and director Bobby will soon be shooting the crucial climax portion of the film which will have principal cast. Producer Sharrat Marar is quite happy with the way film shaping up and keen to release the film on April 8, as promised.

Akkineni Naga Chaitanya is currently busy wrapping up the shoot of his Premam. His other film, Saahasam Swaasaga Saagipo is also gearing up for release. On the other side, Naga Chaitanya had given green signal to Kalyan Krishna who delivered a huge blockbuster with his first film, Soggade Chinni Nayana.

The film will have its launch on April 16th. Kalyan Krishna is currently giving final touches to the script. Samantha will romance Naga Chaitanya for the fourth time with this film. They previously paired up in Yem Maya Chesave, Autonagar Surya and Manam. Both Yem Maya Chesave and Manam are considered classics in Chaitanya’s career.

Nagarjuna will also be producing this project on his Annapurna Studios Banner. The movie shooting will go non-stop till completion. In all probability, Naga Chaitanya will have three releases this year. On the other side, the other cast and crew for this new project are being picked by Kalyan Krishna. —

In Naga Chaitanya’s superhit youthful flick 100%Love, a Mumbai starlet manner Tara Alisha Berry made her debut and got decent recognition as Chay’s bride. She then appeared in JD Chakravathy’s Money Money More Money.

After failing to get the right offers in Tollywood, Tara shifted her base back to Mumbai. In Bollywood, Tara played a rather outrageous role in the adult rated film Mastram and a couple of low budget films. Now, Alisha is back with easily the most erotic film of the year, Love Games.

The film is coming from the Bhat camp which is an expert in dishing out sleazy, erotic thrillers. Recently, Love Games’ trailer was released and its steamy theme of married couple finding sex partners in a party has turned everyone’s attention. Alisha’s bold portrayal of a lady who falls for a married man is expected to strike the right chord with the audiences.

Superstar Mahesh Babu was the original choice for the upcoming science fiction thriller 24. However, Mahesh had turned down the offer since he didn’t like the second half. Then, Vikram Kumar approached Suriya who accepted to do the movie.

This is the second time; Suriya accepted a film that was actually rejected by Mahesh Babu. Previously, Tamil director Lingusamy approached Mahesh Babu with an action story. When Mahesh Babu said no, Lingusamy made the film Sikandar (Anjaan in Tamil) with Suriya.

It is learnt that, Mahesh Babu actually loved the first half of 24. But, he wasn’t too convinced with the second half. Although the Srimanthudu star likes experimenting with innovative scripts, he refused 24, since he found loopholes in the script.

Vikram Kumar is known for narrating complicated stories in simple manner and Manam is the best example. In fact, Mahesh showed interest to team up with the director, but things didn’t materialize. Meanwhile, 24, the film that shows Suriya in triple roles- as elder brother, younger brother and son of elder brother is scheduled for release on April 14th.

Popular Malayali comedian cum villain Kalabhavan Mani breathed his last just a while ago in Kochi following several liver related ailments. Mani was 45. He was admitted to a hospital recently and was being treated in ICU.

From being a modest auto driver in his native place Chalakudy in Kerala to winning the special jury national award for best actor, Mani lived quite an eventful life until the last. He was also a popular political figure and he was supposed to campaign for the CPM in the upcoming polls.

Kalabhavan Mani was quite popular for his villain roles in Telugu films such as Venkatesh’s Gemini, Mahesh Babu’s Arjun and Rajasekhar’s Yevadaithe Nakenti.

Fresh from the grand success of his Sankranthi release Express Raja, talented hero Sharwanand is celebrating his 31st birthday today. On this occasion, the hat-trick hero interacted with media and spoke at length about his personal and professional lives.

Recently, a relatively new producer claimed the Telugu theatrical release rights of Sharwanand’s long delayed film, Yemito Ee Maya. The film has now been titled Rajadhiraja and it is set for its release in March.

Many thought Sharwa would promote the film aggressively to maintain his success streak. However, Sharwa, in his birthday interview, categorically denied having any association with the project.

Sharwa wondered why the producers are releasing the film now when the Tamil version’s DVDs were released almost a year ago. Sharwa further said he has nothing to do with the film. This leaves the producer to fight it out all alone at the box-office.

We have been hearing lot of rumors about Mahesh Babu’s Brahmotsavam lately and here’s the fresh one to join the list. Mahesh Babu is not happy with the script and hero characterization, claims grapevine. Superstar initially liked the story idea and the emotions in the script and has given a go ahead to the project.

However, Mahesh is having some doubts regarding the elements that please his fans and masses. Mahesh expected Srikanth Addala to elevate his character like Koratala Siva did in Srimanthudu.

But the SVSC director failed to do so. Gossipmongers say that the shooting has been delayed for few days to do some changes to the script. Despite the delays and retouches to the script, Mahesh is still not entirely happy with how it shaped out.

PVP has taken this to Raghavendra Rao and the veteran has suggested hiring Paruchuri Brothers to make the necessary changes. So the senior most writers were assigned for the job and did some changes to the script. Is Mahesh happy with the changes made? Even the gossipers have no clue about it.

Birthday Boy Sharwanand is all set for his quarter century in filmdom. In a career spanning over a decade, Sharwa has done 24 films in Telugu, Tamil. Now the Gamyam star is prepping up for his 25th film. Buoyed with 3 hits (Run Raja Run, Malli Malli Idi Rani Roju and Express Raja) in a row, Sharwanand is very choosy about his 25th film.

Keeping it under wraps, Sharwa says, ” Presently three directors are working on the scripts. Whichever goes first depends on how they shape up. But am going to work with all three of them for sure.” Sharwa adds that Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani’s brother Kesineni Chinni (Siva Naga Prasad) is going to produce his 25th film.

Ask him whether he increased his remuneration? Pat comes reply. “I haven’t asked or demanded any producer to increase my fee. They themselves increasing the pay considering that my previous films fared well at Box Office. I think it’s fair too.

At the same time, I always tell my producers to control the budget. I don’t want any producer or any distributor to lose money on my film,” reasons Sharwa. Is working with ace directors on cards? Sharwa says he’d love to act under top directors like Mani Ratnam, Rajamouli, Trivikram, Puri Jagannadh.

He admits he’s great fan of Puri’s trademark characterization of heroes. Sharwa also says he’d like to be part of thrillers, concept-based films which are catching up of late.