Bangalore Babe for Mahesh Babu!
Bangalore Babe, Sanam Shetty will also be working in Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu. The actress made her Telugu debut with Raghavendra Rao’s Intinta Annamayya which never released. Now she got her second chance beside the Superstar himself. She already joined the movie unit and she says working with great artists like Jagapathi Babu and senior actress Sukanya is a learning experience.
According to the latest update, the makers are working on the first look teaser on May 31st on the eve of Superstar Krishna’s birthday. As of now the makers are planning July 17th release for the film and have targeted to complete the entire shooting part by June 12th Koratala Siva had to struggle a lot to take his second film on to sets even after delivering a blockbuster like Mirchi with his first.
Mahesh Babu is also raring to go at the box office especially after those back to back failures with 1-Nenokkadine and Aagadu in 2014. Shruti Hassan is romancing Mahesh Babu in this film, she was last seen shaking her booty for an item song in Aagadu.
Biggest Ever Overseas Release for Balayya with Lion
Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Lion is all set for a grand release on May 14th. The movie’s drives have already reached Overseas and the film will have Premieres in all the locations a day before. The makers are releasing the film in about 100 screens in Us which is a record in Balayya films.
However the hype of the film is not on par with the release. We will have to see if the wide release becomes counter productive. Lion comes after the super success of Legend and Balakrishna making political entry. But still Lion do not have proper buzz due to a new director at the helm.
The theatrical trailer and music album of the film are also not able to make an impact on trade and the audience. Trisha is romancing Balayya for the first time in this movie. Radhika Apte is playing the second heroine.
A new comer Satyadeva is wielding megaphone for this project. Rudrapati Ramana Rao is producing the film under his SLV Cinema banner. Mani Sharma who gave several chart buster audios to Balayya in the past is composing the music for this film.
Hot Heroine Gives Up Beef For Dad
Well, she is now a big girl and has a career of her own. But Shruti Haasan surely believes in respecting her father’s advice.
Last year, her dad Kamal Haasan had advised her to give up beef and Shruti hasn’t touched beef in one year.
Incidentally, Kamal Haasan’s family are Tamil Brahmins and they are pure vegetarians. However, since Sarika is from Mumbai, Shruti seems to have acquired a taste for beef.
She says she used to love it as a child. However, her dad apparently explained how going vegetarian was both healthy and in keeping with their family food habits. So, Shruti gave up beef and says she now relishes eating her dal, curry, papad and rasam.
She confesses that she is also feeling much lighter ever since she gave up non-veg.
With an increasing number of people choosing to be vegetarians, this is another girl who made the choice to go all veg.
KTR outsmarts Naidu in Publicity!
Looks like Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his overenthusiastic son K T Rama Rao, who is presently Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj, are trying to outsmart Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in resorting to cheap publicity tricks.
On Tuesday, the publicity managers of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government went ga ga over signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Google and the Telangana government on setting up a Google campus in Hyderabad.
The MoU was apparently signed in the presence of KTR, who has been on his investment-attraction mission in the USA.
It is true that Google wants to set up its own campus in Hyderabad, but it is very old news. In fact, the MoU was signed long back between erstwhile united Andhra Government and Google and it was announced umpteen times in past.
Now, the Telangana government sought to sign the MoU afresh, in a bid to give an impression that the deal was struck only due to efforts of KTR during his USA trip.
Here are the actual details: In 2008, the then united Andhra Pradesh Government had allocated 20 acres of land to build Google’s own campus in Hyderabad, but the land allocation had faced legal issues and setting of the campus had got postponed multiple times till date. Since then Google is operating in three different “leased” facilities in Hyderabad.
Now, it seems legal issues of the government land has been resolved or another piece of land might have been allocated.
A fresh MoU has been signed for this years’ old Google’s plan of moving its offices. Basically this hype is all about just Google’s plan of moving to own campus from leased facility.
Google’s journey at Hyderabad was all started in then undivided Andhra Pradesh’s Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s government. Below is the timeline of this longtime delayed setup of Google Hyderabad “own” campus:
2008 Feb 14: “Google will set up their India campus in Hyderabad. We have allotted 20 acres,” announced M Gopi Krishna, Special Secretary in Andhra Pradesh’s Department of IT and Communications
2013 May 15: “The Government allotted 20 acres about six years ago for its campus. But unfortunately that landed in a legal issue. Now that it is resolved, we have asked them to build their campus here and expand operations,” Ponnala Lakshmaiah (Then IT minister)
2014 Sep 10th: “Internet search giant Google Inc has reaffirmed its commitment to set up its first campus outside the US. There are some issues with the land allocation. We are sorting it out,” announced KTR.
As established above, there is nothing new in this news expect being signing of MoU has been held until KTR’s USA trip to project him as if he struck this deal!
‘We Will Take The Mega Risk’: Ram Charan
Ram Charan will be producing his dad’s 150th film. However, this is no breaking news as the same has been said before.
Despite the announcement, it is being said that some big producers have been asking Ram Charan to give the opportunity to them. It is being said that both Charan and Chiranjeevi have very politely turned them down.
Chiranjeevi will be seen on the big screen after a long, long time in the film. Of course, there is no doubt that his fans and Telugu people will love him, there are many things that need to work out for the film.
Also, the film will be made with a budget of Rs 25 to Rs 35 crores. So it is said that both father and son have decided to invest on the film themselves and communicated the same to the producers.
Incidentally, they suggested that if the producers were still keen, they could make the 151th film with him. Profits or loss, Chiranjeevi and Ram Charan have decided to take on the burden.
Given that the industry is full of people who want to make others take the risk, their decision is indeed laudable.
Grand audio launch being planned for ‘Baahubali’
Hyderabad: The makers of upcoming Tamil-Telugu bilingual “Baahubali – The Beginning” are said to be spending over Rs.1 crore for the film’s audio launch here on May 31. A bevy of popular southern film stars is expected to attend the function.
“The audio launch for both Tamil and Telugu versions of the movie is being planned on an unprecedented scale. It will be launched in Hyderabad on May 31. An outdoor venue is being finalised and the makers are expected to spend over Rs.1 crore for the event,” a source told IANS.
“While the guests’ list is being finalised, several popular stars from Telugu and Tamil industry is likely to attend the audio launch. The entire team of ‘Baahubali’ will be present as well,” the source added.
At the audio launch, the much anticipated trailer of the movie will be unveiled as well.
“Right from the beginning, the plan was to release the trailer and the audio at the same time to create maximum buzz. The team has already started making arrangements,” the source said.
Directed by S.S. Rajamouli, the film is said to be the story of two brothers, played by Prabhas Varma and Rana Daggubati, for a kingdom.
The movie, said to have been made on a budget of over Rs.100 crore, also features Anushka Shetty, Ramya Krishnan, Sudeep, Sathyaraj and Nasser in important roles.
“Baahubali – The Beginning” is the first part of the movie. The second installment is slated for release next year.
Filmmaker Karan Johar has already bought the theatrical rights of the Hindi version of both the films.
Ganga Strikes Gold at Box Office
Raghava Lawrence’s Ganga has been minting money at the box office as the new releases failed to challenge it on any level.
Ganga has gone from strength to strength at the ticket windows to become hugely successful on the business front. The movie has collected a worldwide share of 17 crores (estimates) by the end of its second weekend.
Everyone who invested money in Ganga is already into profits and there is still no sign of drop in the collections.
The movie is likely to enter 20 crores club by the end of its second week run. Balakrishna’s Lion may affect the collections of Ganga if it strikes chord with the masses. If Lion fails to impress, then Ganga has chances to make to it to the twenty five crore club.
Lawrence’s grip on mass masala and the power of horror-comedy genre has worked wonders at the box office.
Looking at the humongous success of Ganga and Kanchana 2, many Telugu and Tamil directors are now churning out many more horror comedies to cash in on the trend.
Chiru To Get Out Of Politics?
Now that megastar-turned-Congress MP Chiranjeevi has decided to get back into serious acting by doing his 150th film to be directed by ace film maker Puri Jagannath, there is every possibility that he might as well dump politics for good.
According to sources, there has been immense pressure on Chiranjeevi to quit politics as he could not make it big in the field. Moreover, the Congress party does not have any future in AP for at least another one decade and he cannot jump into any other party right now.
On the other hand, he still commands a lot of respect in the film industry and enjoys huge following among fans. So, it is better to get back into films and regain the hold over industry, sources quoting film industry circles said.
However, Chiranjeevi has time as an MP till 2018. Though he may not be actively participating in the Congress party affairs or for that matter politics, he cannot resign from the Rajya Sabha membership just like that.
His advisers are telling him that he might retain his MP seat and at the same time, can continue doing films. He might even set up a film city in Seemandhra using his MP position in the coming days, say sources.
Catherine Tresa Replaces Trisha
Actress Catherine Tresa has replaced Trisha Krishnan, who earlier walked out of filmmaker Selvaraghavan’s yet-untitled Tamil project citing date issues.
“The makers have zeroed in on Catherine as Trisha’s replacement. Since the film is set to go on floors very soon, everything was finalised in a hurry. Catherine will join the sets soon,” a source from the film’s unit told IANS.
The film features Silambarasan aka Simbu in the lead, while Taapsee Pannu will be playing the other leading lady.
The project was said to be the second time collaboration of Trisha and Simbu after “Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya”, but since she has also signed Kamal Haasan’s next film and “Aranmanai 2″, she couldn’t allocate dates for all the projects.
A CM or a Saudi Prince?
“Is one car not enough?….How many cars do you need?” Is one acre not enough, how many acres do you need?” were some popular filmi dialogues used by Pawan Kalyan at the time of his political entry..
Unfortunately, Chandrababu Naidu seems to be completely unaware of these dialogues from Pawan as he continues to indulge like a Saudi Prince.
Including his convoy in Hyderabad, his convey in the new capital region and the one in Tirupati, there are 36 cars in CM Naidu’s convoy in all. And that’s not all!
Whenever the great man feels like a trip to the countryside to assess the farm lands available for grabbing, he has a Rs 5 crore hi-tech bus that would ferry him to each nook and corner.
Naturally, the yellow media would report his visits as that of a CM who is visiting the far flung rural areas without any concern for his personal comforts by travelling in a bus.
The impression is given that the bus is an ordinary RTC one with nails jutting out from the seats and in a rickety condition. That Naidu’s bus has all comforts that would put a suite room in a star hotel to shame is not disclosed.
But if an opposition leader travels in a similar vehicle, each and every interior part of the bus is given front page coverage along with the accusation that it is the proceeds from ill-gotten money.
36 cars and a luxury bus! No sacrifices from Naidu, but he wants the people to make sacrifices for the new capital.
Manchu Manoj’s Grand Gala Bachelor Party in Bangkok!
Manchu Manoj is all set to begin a new innings of his life from 20th of this month. He is getting married to his girl friend, Pranitha Reddy. In the eve of the marriage, Manoj is throwing a big bachelor party to all his friends in Bangkok.
Besides his outside connections, Manoj invited lot of friends from the industry too. It is learnt that actors Nani, Andy Srinivasan, Adarsh, Allari Naresh and others are with him in Bangkok. All of them were flown to Bangkok on a specially booked flight.
Manoj has no new releases after his Current Teega. He is currently shooting for his next, Attack directed by Ram Gopal Varma. He has a new film on cards with director Dasaradh which will go on floors after his marriage and honey moon trip.
Mahesh Babu all set for Double Strike
Superstar Mahesh Babu is planning to do two films at a time after he is done with his current venture Srimanthudu.
Srikanth Addala will be directing one of Mahesh Babu’s next two films. This will be launched on May 31st and goes to sets from June or July.
Mahesh will launch another film in September or October that will be directed by Trivikram. There has been suspense over Trivikram’s next as the speculations are rife about the ace director teaming up with Pawan Kalyan again. However Trivikram decided to do a quickie with Mahesh Babu before taking up Pawan’s film.
Trivikram and Mahesh have earlier teamed up for Athadu and Khaleja. Their third project will be produced by Radha Krishna who made Julayi and S/o Satyamurthy with Trivikram.
If everything goes per plan Addala’s movie will be released for Pongal and Trivikram’s will be ready for next summer.
