Manchu Manoj was quick to deny the rumours that he’d be part of Ram Charan’s next (Telugu remake of Tamil Superhit Thani Oruvan). Quashing them as ‘wrong news’, Manoj made it clear that he is not going to don villain’s hat for Ram Charan. Given that Mohan Babu acted as baddie alongside Chiru, many thought that Manoj and Charan would repeat the feat.

But unfortunately, it’s not happening. Several names have been doing the rounds for the baddie’s role in the Telugu remake of Thani Oruvan. Big names like Madhavan, Sudeep, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rana Daggubati etc propped up but nothing finalised concretely.

Though reports had it that the makers are keen on roping in Arvind Swamy who played the original role and stole the show, makers are apparently worried over Arvind’s high pay. Latest buzz is that, the filmmakers are looking for other options.

Surender Reddy will be directing the Telugu version while NV Prasad is going to produce the film and Allu Aravind to oversee the production. Shruti Haasan is likely to essay Charan’s love interest. Thani Oruvan is about the face-off between a righteous policeman and a rich, cunning industrialist.

The incessant rains have left people of Chennai in a despair condition. The denizens of rain-battered city were hit by poor network and power cut. Heroine Samantha and her family too couldn’t escape. None other than Sam shared the plight of her and her family.

“I could not even speak with my parents for three days because of the bad network…I’ve been spending sleepless nights for the past one week! I have so many relatives and friends stuck there; they are suffering! So many people in Chennai don’t even have food and water, I feel so guilty,” said Samantha who was in Vijayawada for a cause.

The Chennai girl further said, “I was always proud to be a Chennaiite and will do whatever I can to help the flood victims. I also request all you people to do your bit to help.

In Vijayawada, Samantha spent her valuable time with underprivileged children, who recently underwent heart surgeries. Apart from having lunch with the tiny tots and interacting with their parents, Samantha also discussed their health with the doctors.

Senior actress Radhika Sarathkumar made her Tollywood debut with the Megastar Chiranjeevi starrer Nyayam Kavali in 1981. Radhika was just about 18 years old by that time and she was completely clueless with the language, people and the whole Tollywood setup. In her latest interview to a Telugu news channel, Radhika revealed a few interesting incidents from her debut film experience.

Radhika said that in one scene she was supposed to slap Chiranjeevi hard and that she couldn’t get the shot right as she struggled to utter her dialogues properly and the director wasn’t happy. This made Radhika to take 24 takes and in all the 24 takes Radhika slapped Chiru.

After the shot was okayed, Radhika profusely apologized to Chiru for slapping him so hard. A thorough professional, Chiru, whose cheeks were all red by then, jokingly ‘thanked’ Radhika for at least getting the shot right after 24 takes.

Hero Sudheer Babu’s debut film ‘Siva Manasulo Shruthi’ could not perform well at the ticket windows. However, his second film ‘Premakathachitram’ was a huge hit then. Then again, Sudheer Babu had to get four flops in a row which in turn leads to bad phase of his career as a hero. Sudheer Babu’s upcoming film ‘Bhale Manchi Roju’, however, appears to be promising.

Having compared with the teasers and trailers of movies which are slated for release in near future, ‘Bhale Manchi Roju’s trailer appears to have shown a much needed difference. But then, will this difference spin the money at the box office? As of now, the production team appears to be confident and are releasing the movie on December 25. Meanwhile, this crime comedy was directed by Sriram Aditya.

Telugu stars Rana Daggubati, Nani, Allari Naresh, Navdeep, Manchu Lakshmi, Allu Sirish, Madhu Shalini, Nikhil Siddhartha and few others have come together and formed an initiative called ‘Mana Madras Kosam’ to help the Chennai flood victims. While most stars have already contributed through donations, the above mentioned stars have visited few malls in Hyderabad city to raise funds for the good cause.

When actors went to Forum mall this evening, crowd came their way to shake hand. This caused big stampede and female artists had to cancel other programs. Revealing about the incident, Lakshmi said, “Went to Forum..we couldn’t control the crowd and our safety was at risk.

With very very sad heart had to cancel Manjeera and Inorbit.” Lakshmi further said, “We will make sure what you have dropped off at the malls is collected immediately. Thank you to the people who were generous.”

On the other hand, Rana and team networked with several NGOs and volunteers on ground to help the team to collect funds. Rana’s family owned Ramanaidu Studios has become the drop point for relief essentials which are packed and trucked to the city.

Gossips have been floated around on Gopicand starrer ‘Soukhyam’s audio launch recently. It was speculated that the audio launch would be held on 16th of this month at Ongole and Natasimham Nandamuri Balakrishna had been invited the chief guest of the film. However, sources close to Balakrishna have deplored the rumours and made it clear that none had been approached Balakrishna for any movie’s audio launch.

It was also disclosed that Balakrishna is currently busy shooting for his ongoing film ‘Dictator’ in Delhi. Meanwhile, ‘Soukhyam’ is being planned for release on December 25 as a Christmas gift for the audience. Regina Cassandra has teamed up with Gopichand in the film. AS Ravi Kumar Chowdary, who scored a super hit with ‘PIlla Nuvvu Leni Jeevitham’, has directed ‘Soukhyam’.

Young Tiger NTR’s two upcoming projects ‘Naannaku Prematho’ and ‘Janatha Garage’ appear to be the most sought after films of upcoming days. It is being said that ‘Janatha Garage’s business has been closed in all areas while ‘Naannaku Prematho’ is still open in many areas, despite it being released soon. As per analysts, current status of directors of both the movies makes the difference in pre release biz of the movies. Since Sukumar’s previous film ‘1-Nenokkadine’ was a debacle at the box office, the business of ‘Naannaku Prematho’ got affected.

On the contrary, Koratala Siva scored two back to back blockbusters ‘Mirchi’ and ‘Srimanthudu’ such that ‘Janatha Garage’s business has been closed within no time. But then, is Koratala really bigger than Sukumar? Certainly not! Sukumar has made a mark and proved his mettle as a director with his style of romantic entertainers. Even though Koratala’s both the movies scored big hits, many factors turned responsible for the successes of those films. ‘Srimanthudu’ had to face plagiarism charges as the story was alleged to have been copied from a serial in Swathi Weekly.

This is, perhaps, an ultimate noble gesture shown by a superstar from Kollywood. Ilayathalapathy Vijay has reportedly donated Rs.5 crores for the victims of Chennai rains. This is certainly a shocking charity act from Vijay and everyone is praising his kind gesture on flood victims. Earlier top choreographer, actor and filmmaker Raghava Lawrence donated Rs.1 crore for the flood victims.

Superstar Rajinikanth donated Rs.10 lakhs while hero Siddharth himself participated actively in rescue and relief operations in spite his house itself submerged in flood waters. Meanwhile, the government has deployed a big number of army and navy forces in the city of Chennai for rescue and relief operations. As it stopped raining, rescue operations are going on in a full swing.

Kalatapaswi K Viswanadh’s ‘Shankarabharanam’ is one such great movie that makes Telugu people take pride of. This classic film was rich in content, music, performances and great direction prowess. The time when Kona Venkat confirmed his movie’s title as ‘Shankarabharanam’, cine lovers lamented to the core for killing a great classic.

Finally, it became a painfully dreary and tedious film for the audience. Buzz now doing rounds that Kona is thinking about making a movie which is titled ‘Pathalabhairavi’, yet another classic film released in 1951. If at all this project gets materialized with the same title, Kona has to face the heat of movie lovers.