Mumbai: Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, whose repertoire is studded with films like “Karz”, “Ram Lakhan”, “Khalnayak” and “Pardes”, feels that the definition of a “commercial film” has not changed in the Indian cinema dictionary since the 1970s era.

Ghai, who was known for spinning magic on the silver screen in the 1980s and 1990s, made the observation after looking at the list of blockbusters of the year gone by. “The definition and grammar of commercial blockbuster films has not changed since ’70s if you look at last year’s blockbusters at PAN India – same,” Ghai tweeted on Sunday.

Ghai, who started his directorial career with the 1976 film “Kalicharan”, also shared: “Babuji says – when a movie fails, means the director has failed to narrate the story on screen he selected – 95 percent failed last year? why? To study”.

In the recent times, Ghai has failed to recreate his cinematic magic with his last few movies — “Yuvvraaj” and “Kaanchi: The Unbreakable” turning out to be damp squibs at the box office.

Popular Bollywood actress Asin is all excited to tie the knot with co-founder of Micromax Rahul Sharma in Delhi on January 20.Sources, involved with the preparations said that the wedding celebrations will be held at a hotel on National Highway 8. The arrangements will cater to over 100 guests. The private ceremony which will be attended by close friends and family members will attend the Mehndi function on January 19.

Since both the bride and the groom want a simple wedding, the food is said to be simple and vegetarian. The nuptials will be taken place as per both Hindu and Christian rituals and on January 20, a formal ceremony will be organized for 250 guests which will also include Rahul’s business friends.

Sources also revealed that a reception will be held in Mumbai on January 23 for all the bollywood friends. “The Mumbai reception is especially for the couple’s Bollywood friends. Only a few people from the Hindi film industry are on the guest list for the functions in Delhi,” adds the source.

Bollywood Khiladi on Sunday received the first wedding invite and tweeted that he was very happy to receive the invite of his close buddies.Asin was last seen in ‘All is Well’ with Abhishek Bachchan and is currently on a break to enjoy and celebrate happy moments in her life.

Here’s the Akkineni brothers Naga Chaitanya and Akhil looking dapper in their father Nagarjuna’s Bangarraju getup from his Sankranthi film, Soggade Chinni Nayana. Both the brothers, who are known for their attitude and grace, carry off this village getup in style and  elegance.

This photograph was captured before Chay and Akhil shot for a special Sankranthi promo event along with their doting dad and the real Bangarraju, Nagarjuna, and has been spreading like wildfire on social media ever since.

Middle East Censor Board member and Indian Cinema Magazine editor Kiaara Sandhu is pretty famous for her controversial reviewing and rating of Indian films. She also gives ratings for Telugu films of star heroes. Funny side of this is she reviews; much before a film’s first copy is ready. She did the same for Nannaku Prematho too.

“Mindblowing Response for #JrNTR #NannakuPrematho after final Copy. Distributors r very happy about Positive feedback,” she posted on Twitter on January 5th. But, Nannaku Prematho first copy was ready only on 7th.

Sandhu promised to review Nannaku Prematho on 10th, but she posted short review today on Twitter, much before the film’s censor formalities are done. Censor screening of the movie has been started at 1:30 PM and certification process will be completed by evening today. However, Kiaara Sandhu could watch the movie; much earlier to Telugu censor board members. How funny, she is right?

Kiaara Sandhu lauded NTR and other cast and crew members of Nannaku Prematho, giving 4 ratings out of 5. The same controversial reviewer previously gave 2 ratings for Tollywood’s biggest blockbuster Baahubali and 4 ratings each for Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu and Aagadu, Ram Charan’s Toofan and NTR’s Rabhasa which all were box office duds.

So it’s better taking light of these reviews of Kiaara Sandhu. Nannaku Prematho will have first premiere shows in several areas on 13th early morning. Hope, the Sukumar directorial will provide big break for NTR!

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….!!

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).

Energetic Star Ram Completes a decade of his professional career as a hero today. His debut movie ‘Devadasu’ was released on January 11, 2006 and scored a blockbuster at the box office. From then on he acted a total of 13 films. Apart from ‘Devadasu’, his movies like ‘Ready’, ‘Kandireega’, ‘Pandaga Chesko’ and ‘Nenu Sailaja’ got above average to super hi results at the box office.

Having delighted with the successful completion of ten years of his career Ram assured he would try to entertain the audiences at his best. ” 10 Years..10 Beautiful years of my life!Ur Love made me what I am today.Will try & give back as much as I can & entertain you until the end!” posted Ram in his twitter page.

Ram’s latest offing ‘Nenu Sailaja’ is running successfully at the box office. The movie has been directed by Kishore tirumala on Sravanthi Movies. Keerthi Suresh is the leading lady of the movie. Devi Sri Prasad has composed the music of the movie.

Natasimham Nandamuri Balakrishna’s speech at ‘Dictator’ film’s audio platinum disc function turns out to be a hot discussion topic among the netigens in social media. Addressing to the gathering at the venue Balakrishna said, ” I compete with myself only. If at all, I should compete with anyone, he should be either my son or my grandson.”

And now, some of the movie buffs disparaged Balakrishna’s words in social media platforms. They say Balakrishna competes himself is OK. But no one knows, how could his son and grandson perform as heroes. Had any bigwig from industry or fans flattered Balakrishna exactly what Balakrishna said, it would have been a proud moment for the hero and his supporter. Hero resorts in praising himself doesn’t offer dignity to the senior hero.

Meanwhile some of the movie patrons opined Balakrishna should have learned a few things from his contemporary heroes like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh who always keep themselves away with controversial statements. However, some of the admirers defended Balakrishna saying that the star is alway right with his views.

If a hundred of movies are being made every year, half of the movies among them are directed by debutants. Unfortunately, most of these movies get flop results at the box office and the debut Directors are responsible for the negative results of those films. Following factors are said to be responsible for the Directors’ failure in making a hit product.

* Many debutants have great thoughts but are poor at execution.

* Perfect team may not set for some of the Directors.

* Attitude matters. A balanced, subtle and appealing attitude needs to be possessed by the debutants.

* Many debutants do not now the pulse of audiences. Most of the debutants have zero knowledge on movies.

* Some of the debutants have passion to be recognized as Directors, but have no skills of direction.

* Many debutants lack leadership qualities and communication skills. Unless they acquire these qualities they can’t be good Directors.

* Having directed just one or two short films, most of the people are becoming Directors and are coming up with below par contented movies.

* Most of the debut Directors have no innovative thoughts and creativity to attract the audiences.

HOW SHOULD BE A GOOD DEBUT DIRECTOR?: A good debut director should not possess all the bad qualities mentioned above. He should possess strong desire,fire and passion in movie making for a big time. He needs to acquire the great qualities like determination, hard work and courage to achieve his goal. Above all, he needs to have command in all the 24 crafts in movie making. Given all these qualities of the debutants, upcoming family film like ‘Soggade Chinnii Nayana’, techno wonder with brand new commercial entertainer ‘Sanjeevani’ and a couple of more films appear to be promising and offer a ray of hope for new age Telugu cinema.

Young Tiger NTR’s ‘Naannaku Prematho’s huge pre release business may turn a menace for the the makers. Trade reports are that the movie’s rights were sold out to Rs.55 crores world wide. The movie, obviously, needs to collect more than Rs.56-57 crores to be termed a hit.

Since a total of four films are releasing for this Sankranthi, it turns inexorable, the movie has to share the theaters equally with other films of the season. The movie is likely to get around 500 to 600 screens for release. Unless the movie collects around Rs.45+ crores share in the first week of its release it can’t get break even. As such we need to see whether the movie achieves the target in below par number of theaters its gets released.

This Sukumar’s directorial venture has been produced by BVSN Prasad on SVCC banner.Rakul Preet Singh is the lead actress of the movie. Devi Sri Prasad has scored the music of the movie. The movie is releasing on January 13.

Young hero Sharwanand’s ‘Express Raja’ is creating ripples at the box office right now. According to the reports the movie is releasing around 600 theaters world wide which is almost on par with the release theaters of a few other big films of Sankranthi. In US alone the movie is releasing in 90 screens.

On the other hand, the movie’s satellite rights have been acquired by MAA TV for a whopping of Rs.3.25 crores. Given the pre biz, number of screens to be released and huge satellite price are taken into consideration, it is understood the movie has generated huge hype at the moment.

But then, why this hype and hoopla generated all of a sudden? It is a known thing that Sharwanand’s previous films ‘Run Raja Run’ and ‘Malli Malli Idhi Rani Roju’ scored super hits at the box office and the hero is looking forward to complete a hat-trick with ‘Express Raja’. Also, the production house of the movie has made blockbusters like ‘Mirchi’ and ‘Bhale Bhale Magadivoy’. All these factors made ‘Express Raja’ to stand as one of the crazy films of Pongal season. The movie hits the cinemas on January 14.

King Nagarjuna’s new movie ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’ appearss to be one of the most promising movies Among Sankrathi films. Thanks to the trailers and teasers which displayed Nagarjuna’s mark of entertainment and music.

It is heard that the movie’s satellite rights have been sold out for Rs.6.5 crores to a leading entertainment channel. This is the record price among Nagarjuna’s films. As we know, the movie is hitting the cinemas on January ,on the auspicious day of Sankranthi.

Ramya Krishnan and Lavanya Tripathi have done female leads of this village backdrop family entertainer. Anasuya and Hamsa Nandini will be seen in crucial roles. The movie has its music scored by Anup Rubens. Kalyan Krishna has directed and acted as one of the producers of the movie apart from Annapurna Studios.

The Regional Censor Board in Hyderabad had finished the Censor formalities of NTR’s Nannaku Prematho a short while ago. The movie was rated ‘U/A’ with no cuts. With this every thing is set for a grand release on 13th as Sankranthi Special.

With the censor formalities complete, the makers left with a humongous task of shipping the content in time for the Overseas Premieres on tomorrow night. The makers are aggressively promoting the film already.

A record release is planned for the film. Almost every theater in both the Telugu states except those screening Nenu Sailaja and Killing Veerappan will be screening the movie on its release day.

Actor Nani’s next, Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Gadha will have its audio launch event on 18th of this month at Shilpa Kalavedhika. The makers have recently released their first look poster of the film and it managed to impress everyone.

The makers are planning to release the movie in the first week of February. They say the actor will be seen as Anantapur Balakrishna fans president in the film and will be sporting ‘Jai Balayya’ tattoo on his arm.

Andhala Rakshasi fame Hanu Raghavapudi is directing the film. 14 Reels Entertainments which recently tasted flops like Aagadu and 1-Nenokkadine is producing the film. Vishal Chandrasekhar who belongs to AR Rahman school, composed music for the film.

This Sankranthi is going to witness an unexpected combat between the heroes of the same family. As we know, they are Natasimham Nandamuri Balakrishna and Young Tiger Ntr. In addition to them, King Nagarjuna with his ‘Soggade Chinni Nayana’ and Sharwanand’s ‘Express Raja’ are also in Sankranthi race.

Ntr, however, isn’t worried with the competition from his babai Balakrishna’s ‘Dictator’ and other films. In coNtrast, he cited the examples of Mega Power Star Ram Charan’s ‘Naayak’ and Victory Venkatesh and Prince Mahesh’s ‘Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu’, which got released for 2013’s Pongal scored blockbusters. Ntr hoped Sankranthi films, this year, will also run well like the films mentioned above.

Ntr is busy participating with the promotions of his ‘Naannaku Prematho’. The movie is carrying positive buzz among trade people now. The film is slated for release on January 13 across the globe.

Young Tiger NTR’s Nannaku Prematho had already touched the 400 screens release in Nizam. Abhishek Pictures, the distributor of the movie there is trying to get 40 more screens by the time of release.

If this happens Nannaku Prematho will cross Baahubali record in Nizam which released in 420+ screens back then. In RTC X roads alone, the movie will release in seven out of the total eight theaters on day one.

Creative director Sukumar is wielding megaphone for this movie which has Rakul Preet Singh playing the female lead. Rajendra Prasad and Jagapathi Babu are playing important roles. BVSN Prasad is producing the film under his Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra banner.

This time Ram Gopal Varma resorted to a huge controversy announcing the project ‘Vangaveeti’ instead of preferring his regular controversial tweets. A top TV news channel telecasted a face to face interview with Rgv and tried to know whether Rgv would support or oppose ‘Vangaveeti’ in the movie, with a shower of questions.

Rgv, however, quipped the questions posed and made it clear that he would be showing gang wars but would not touch any sensitive issues. Moreover he disclosed he would project the exact story of ‘Vangaveeti’.

However, some of the previous films of Rgv hint us whether he would support or oppose ‘Vangaveeti’ in the movie. In his ‘Raktha Charithra’, Rgv showcased a late leader like a god, who was actually one of the rivals of Vangaveeti. ‘Rgv’s production venture ‘Bejawada’ projects a Bejawada leader in a negative shaded role. Anyways, we have to wait and watch how well Rgv gets succeeded in making this controversial story a blockbuster.

Young Rebel Star Prabhas is currently for Baahubali – The conclusion. His next film will be under the direction of young director Sujeeth Sign of Run Raja Run fame. The film will start rolling in the second half of the year. Prabhas will be seen as a powerful police officer in the movie.

The makers have roped in noted Tamil cinematographer Madhie to crank the camera. Madhie is known for his excellent work in Prabhas’ Mirchi, Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu and Sujeeth’s Run Raja Run.

Vamsi and Pramod who produced Mirchi with Prabhas will be funding this project on their UV Creations banner. Sujeeth is currently working on the script for this film. More details of this project will be revealed soon.