Dasari faces another ‘Son-stroke’

Dasari faced one more ‘son-stroke’ with the movie ‘Adi Vishnu’, starred by his son Arun Kumar. It ended as a two week show. Even the glamour of Sneha could not help the movie. Dr. Dasari claimed that 3 lakh audio cassettes were sold in just one week. The movie was with 150 theaters. Dasari made a very big mistake by choosing Bharath Parepalli, a b-grade director, to direct the movie. Dasari must have requested a leading director to direct his son, rather than taking a less known and less capable director.

Now, he is concentrating more his upcoming flick ‘Mestri’, in which he himself palys the lead role. The film circles are of an opinion that it will give another blow to Dasar. Nowadays, who after all is interested to watch Dasari as hero.

Babu Mohan’s son: The first Dalit hero in Tollywood

Though dalits form almost 20% of the state population, there is not even a single hero from the dalit community. Uday Babu, the son of Babu Mohan, is set to full fill the deficit with his debut as hero. Perhaps, he is the first dalit hero.

Earlier, Kalyan Rao, a naxalite leader from dalit community, tried to promote his son as hero. But, he could not succeed and his attempts became highly controversial in his party. Now, Babu Mohan is trying to promote his son as hero.

Interestingly, Babh Mohan hails from Coastal region and has settled in Hyderabad as an artist. He was elected twice as MLA from Rajampet, Medak. His movie is also based on the story of Sammakka Saarakka, the local deities worshipped by the people of Northern Telangana region. Let us hope that Babu Mohan will not face any ‘son -stroke’, in his attempt as his colleagues. May Sammakka and Sarakka bless Babu Mohan and Bala Babu Mohan (i.e., Uday Babu).

Srija about her dad

Before hitting headlines by marrying Sirish Bharadwaj, the name Srija, the younger daughter of Chiranjeevi was known to very few people. But, with her marriage, she became a symbol of the aspirations and tastes of youth. In an interview, given to a leading news paper, Srija told following things about her father:

• Among his movies, ‘Daddy’ is my favorite movie, in which he plays the role of a father and the story is similar to my personal life.
• During my childhood, he was always very busy with his films. He used to return home late in the night.
• I used to attend various functions with him.
• He never discussed with us about movies. He did not want me to become an actor and wanted me to lead a normal life as a house wife.

‘Sitara’: a Telugu channel by Asianet Television Network

Sitara Channel, a Telugu channel promoted by Asianet Television Network, was commenced on 9^th October, i.e., on the day of Vijaya Dasami. Asianet Television Network has entered Telugu TV market with this channel.

The corporation was started 18 years ago in Kerala and now, it runs three channels in Malayalam: Assianet(GEC), Asianet News (24 hrs news channel), and Asianet Plus and two channels in Kannada: Suvarna (GEC) and Suvarna News. Interestingly, the corporation is planning to launch a 24 hours news channel in Telugu, soon.

An IT case against ‘Aishwarya Rai’

A case has been filed by an Income Tax commissioner, against Aishwarya Rai for allegedly making a false claim that she was a NRI, while submitting her tax returns in 1995, in order to avoid the payment of tax, on her income of £50,000(Rs 26 lakh), the amount she was paid as a part of the award of ‘Miss

‘Okka Mogadu’: An unforgettable flop show of Balakrishna

Bala Krishna’s ‘Okka Mogadu’, released during Sankranti, 2008, was an unforgettable failure in his film career. However, YVS chowdhary, the director as well as the producer of the movie, made big bucks by selling this movie at higher price for distributors. It was reported that he produced this movie, with a budget of Rs. 12 crores and sold it to distributors for Rs. 20 crores. It was only local distributors and exhibitors, who suffered the losses.
YVS Chowdhary made very bad name with this movie. If this movie became a block buster, YVS would have become equal to directors like Puri Jagannath, VV Vinayak and MS Rajamouli. Prior to the releaseof the movie, it was believed that the movie will rewrite the record of ‘Narasimha Naidu’, one of the biggest hits in the career of Balakrishna. The movie turned a flop show because the director tried to project Balakrishna as another ‘Bharatheeyudu’.

The real color of superstar Krishna

Super star Krishna has started his second innings in politics on 5th October, by extending his support to Congress. Krishna asked his fans as well as Mahesh Babu’s fans to support Congress, during the forthcoming assembly elections. The super star started his political career, way back in 1983, when NTR launched TDP. When the entire industry was with NTR, Krishna and Jamuna were the only two people to campaign for Congress. However, the super star did not contest the elections in 1983. For the first time, he entered the election fray, only in 1989, when he contested from Eluru parliamentary seat and won the elections. But, he lost his seat in 1991. As it is projected, he is not the loyal follower of Congress. He kept himself away from the politics. He did not campaign for Congress, during either 1999 or 2004. Now, after a very long gap, he is set to campaign for Congress, as it is in power. It shows his cleverness. Vijaya Nirmala, the wife of superstar Krishna, contested from Eluru assembly segment and lost the elections. Now, He is backing Congress, simply because YSR is reported to promise the superstar to help him in overcoming his financial problems. He wants to keep Mahesh Babu away from politics, because his career may get affected, if he takes an active part in politics. In 1989, Congress won the elections, because of the bad rule of NTR and not because of campaign of film actors like Krishna, Jamuna, Dasari Narayana Rao, Prabahkar Reddy, Gummadi and others.

A bollywood movie on Silk Smitha

It is not new in Indian film history to produce movies on the real life story of film stars. Long ago, Mani Ratnam directed ‘Iddaru’, on the life history of MG Ramachandran. Recently, a movie was made on the life story of Sreevidya, an actress of yester years, who passed away few months. Now, Ektha Kapoor is planning to produce a movie on the life of late Silk Smitha, whose role will be palyed by Mallika Sherawat. Smitha’s life is another tragedy in the history of Tollywood. Having cheated by good many people in her personal life, she ended her life by committing suicide in 1996. (Written by S. Chandra Shekara Reddy Posted on: 23rd October, 2008)

Veteran comedian Nagesh is no more

Nagesh, veteran comedian in South Indian film industry, took his last breath on 31st January, 2009. He owns a very rare record of acting in more than thousand movies. He acted with big wigs like MGR, Sivaji, Kamal Hasan and Rajnikanth. In a few movies like ‘Server Sundaram’, he acted as full fledged hero. Kamal Hasan is a great fan of Nagesh and used to offer him a role in each one of his movies. He acted in Kamal Hasan’s recent movie ‘Dasavatharam’ too. Several Kollywood bigwigs like Rajnikanth, Kamal Hasan and Manorama paid their homage to the late actor.

Heroine Sangeetha marries Krish

Actress Sangeetha married singer Krish on 1st February in a temple in Thiruvanamalai amid of family members, relatives, friends and colleagues on both the sides. Several film personalities like Venkat Prabu, Maheswari and SPB Charan graced the function.
The heroine is popular in both Tollywood as well as Kollywood. In Telugu, she acted in movies like Krishna Vamshi’s ‘Khadgam’, Ravi Teja’s ‘Ee Abbai Chala Manchodu’ and S.V. Krishna Reddy’s ‘Pellam Vureluthe’.

'Bangaru Babu' to release on 20th February

'Bangaru Babu', starring Jagapathy Babu and Meera Jasmine, is slated to release on 20th February. Smt. Dasari Padma is presenting the movie under Soubhayga Media Limited banner. K. Rama Krishna Prasad is producing the movie while Jonnalagadda Srinivas Rao is directing the movie.

Balakrishna ready to contest against Chiranjeevi

Balakrishna stated that he is ready to contest against Chiranjeevi, while talking to media persons at Hindupur on 29th Janauary. He arrived in Hindupur in order to participate as a party of his Rayalaseema tour. A press meet was held in the town on the occasion of his arrival. Addressing a question raised by a journalist, Balakrishna said that he is ready to contest against Chiranjeevi in the coming elections on behalf of TDP incase the party high command orders him so. When asked about Telangana issue, he clarified that the division of the state will be according to the aspirations of the people.

Balakrishna ready to contest against Chiranjeevi

Balakrishna stated that he is ready to contest against Chiranjeevi, while talking to media persons at Hindupur on 29th Janauary. He arrived in Hindupur in order to participate as a party of his Rayalaseema tour. A press meet was held in the town on the occasion of his arrival. Addressing a question raised by a journalist, Balakrishna said that he is ready to contest against Chiranjeevi in the coming elections on behalf of TDP incase the party high command orders him so. When asked about Telangana issue, he clarified that the division of the state will be according to the aspirations of the people.

Sri Hari to appear as full fledged hero after one year

Nowadays, Sri Hari is playing character roles rather than full fledged hero roles. After a gap of more than one year, he is set to appear once again as a full fledged hero on the screen with his forthcoming movie ‘Srisailam’, which is set to release on 31st January. K. S. Nageshwar Rao is directing the movie. Interestingly, Rebel Star Krishnam Raju is playing an important role. The movie features three heroines namely Sujitha, Sindhu and Suhasini.

Rahul Nambiar turns director

It is not Kodi Ramakirshna but, Rahul Nambiar who made a great name with success of 'Arundati'. Rahul was the visual effects supervisor as well as the creative director of the movie. He was also involved in several departments such as editing and music. He himself directed 60% of the movie. He admitted the fact in an interview given to a website.

Now, he is set to turn a director and producer Shyamprasad Reddy is planning to produce the movie under his banner. Now, they are planning either to dub or remake the movie in Hindi. The project may commence after 7 months. Both, the producer and Rahul are in high spirits with the resounding success of the movie and both of them are confident that the Hindi version will set a new record like ‘Ghajini’.

HC hands over ANR's 'surrendered' land to relative

Justice L Narasimha Reddy of the AP High Court has declared veteran Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao's alleged surrendering of 25 cres surplus land in Nuzividu of Krishna district as invalid and directed the authorised officer of the land reforms department to hand over this land to ANR's relative Akkineni Venkataratnam immediately. Delivering the judgment on a petition filed by Venkataratnam, the judge said the government is free to take over the actor's share of 25 acres which fell on the southern side. The petitioner challenged the takeover of his land under the guise of ANR's surplus land saying that the family settlement deed gave the surrendered 25 acres which fell on the northern side to him and not to the actor. A Giridhara Rao, government pleader for revenue, objected to the petitioner's dissent at this stage and raised doubts about his intentions as to why he kept quite for 12 years and challenged it in 2008 when the surrender was effected in 1996 itself. The agony for the government is doubled because it spent huge amounts on levelling this land for the purpose of constructing sports stadium, hostel buildings and driving test tracks in this land ever since it was vested with them after the actor surrendered this land. As per this judgment, the state government has to now surrender this southern share of 25 acres and the authorities have to hand over the levelled northern share to Venkataratnam.

(Courtesy: Times Of India )

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ nominated for Oscars

‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was nominated for Oscar Awards 2009 under 10 categories namely best motion picture, best director, best cinematography, best film editing, sound editing and screen play. Satyajith Ray was the last Indian to receive Oscar award. Earlier, movies like Sharuhkhan’s ‘Devdas’, Ameerkhan’s ‘Lagaan’, and ‘Swas’ were nominated for Oscar. However, they could not win the award and now, most of the movie pundits are predicting that A.R. Rehman may receive the award as the best music director.

Kasi Vishwanath’s next movie in February

Director Kasi Vishwanath, who earlier directed movies like ‘Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu’, made his debut as an actor with recently released flick ‘Nachchavule’. His role as a strict father in this movie earned him good appreciation as an actor.
Good many offers started flowing in and now, he is busy with almost dozen movies. However, he does not want to neglect his prime job, i.e., direction. He is set to commence his next directorial venture in ‘Nachchavule’.

Legal battle: Kiran Kumar Vs UTV

Legal battle: Kiran Kumar Vs UTV
Producer Kiran Kumar Koneru, has landed in legal troubles. He has received an injunction from the court on the Telugu remake of ‘A Wednesday’.
Earlier, the producer claimed that he had purchased the Telugu remake rights of ‘A Wednesday’. However, UTV claimed that they did not sell the remake rights to anybody. The producer still claims that he had purchased the rights. He is reported to have submitted some proofs of purchasing the rights to the court. Let us wait and see who will win the legal battle.

‘Arundhati’ receives over whelming response

‘Arundhati’ has become a grand success and is faring extremely well at the box office. At first, the movie was released with 100 prints and after watching over whelming response from the audience, the producer has increased the prints to 250 by 23rd January. The movie is released in USA with 12 prints on 23rd January.

Sharwanand on cloud9

‘Kadhalna Summa Illai’, the Tamil remake of ‘Gamyam’, is faring well in Kollywood too. The flick was released in Tamil Nadu during Pongal and has been receiving good response from the audience despite the release of good many big movies on the same day.
Radhakrishna alias Krish, the director of Telugu version, made a good name with this movie. Raj TV remade the movie in Tamil. The Telugu version was starred by Allari Naresh, Sharwanand and Kamilini Mukherjee. Sharwanand and Kamilini Mukherjee were repeated in Tamil version too while Ravi Krishna, of ‘7-G Brindavan Colony’ fame, replaced Allari Naresh. Now, Sharwanand is on cloud9 with the success of Tamil version. Now, he is acting with Mohan Babu and Ramya Krishna in ‘Raju-Maharaju’.

ANR away from NTR’s death anniversary for the first time

For the first time, ANR kept himself away from the death anniversary of late NTR. As his health did not permit him, he did not visit NTR Ghat to pay his homage to late NTR on his 13th death anniversary. Earlier, he visited NTR Ghat and paid homage to the departed soul every year on his death anniversary.