Pawan Kalyan, SJ Suryah and team are currently shooting for their film Puli in Hyderabad. The talkie portion of the film was shot in cities like Mumbai and Chennai and US. For intro scenes, the team has chosen the City of Nizams. It is learnt that the unit will proceed to shoot for some songs after the schedule in the capital city.
Directed by SJ Suryah of Khushi and Vaali fame, the film has music by AR Rehman. Nikhisha Patel is playing the female lead opposite Pawan. Binodh Pradan of Bollywood is wielding the camera. Made with high technical values, it is produced by Singanamala Naidu.
The Power Star is playing a cop in Puli, who heads a team out to hunt down the terrorists. According to gossip mills, Pawan whizzes off to New York in the film, to work in association with the world-famous Inter Pol that has intelligence of the whereabouts of terrorists.
Touted to be a dream project of SJ, who first narrated the script to Tamil superstar Vijay, the film has been in the making for 2 years now. It was announced before the release of Pawan's last film Jalsa, which released in February 2008.
The never-ending procrastination is not attributed to any reason, because the fans have almost stopped aksing for any! (more...)
Puli's shooting in Hyderabad
Sania Mirza’s engagement called off
Sania Mirza hasn’t had the best of starts to the 2010 season - on and off court. A broken service game is one thing, but a broken engagement or a broken heart, is quite another.
Earlier in the week, the 23-year-old’s father Imran, who coaches Sania and manages her career, called off his daughter’s engagement to Mohammed Sohrab Mirza. Sania was formally engaged to the fellow Hyderabadi and longtime friend, now studying business in the United Kingdom, at a luxury hotel near her home last July.
The Indian star categorically refused to get into the why and what of the matter, but confirmed her engagement was off. "We were friends for half a decade, but found ourselves incompatible during our engagement period. I wish Sohrab the best in life," she said.
Even before the two got engaged, questions were doing the rounds about whether Mohammed could cope with the demands of being life-partner to a widely-travelled, hugely-popular athlete. Sania, who has been struggling with the differences for the last couple of months, hasn’t taken the break-up well as her results on court show. However, she’s doing what she always does at a time of crisis - surround herself with family and friends.
As it stands, Sania will have to turn her focus to the courts, and in time might find comfort there. She flies out to Kuala Lumpur late on Friday, where she leads India’s challenge in the Fed Cup Asia Oceania Group II competition, starting February 2. (more...)
NTR’s marriage in May?
Is NTR getting married this year? Yes, says a news channel that broke the news that NTR’s parents brought an alliance and to which 27-year-old NTR readily agreed. According to the channel, NTR will be marrying Lakshmi Pranati, a relative of former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. Lakshmi is currently studying in a private college in Hyderabad. All arrangements are being done for the grand marriage ceremony in May this year. (more...)
Siddarth ready to strike again
Film Bommarillu gave an excellent platform to its young hero Siddarth , to firmly establish himself in Tollywood. On the other hand, unlike the other heroes in the industry he made his presence felt in Hindi belt with his film ‘Rangdhe Basanti.’ Soon after giving a hit he once again delivered another hit film ‘Striker’ in Hindi.
Film Striker is based upon the circumstances of Mumbai city in ‘80s. Siddarth acts as a caroms champion in this film. Padmapriya and Vidya Malwade are the heroines in this film. Now, this film is being dubbed into Telugu with same title by Indu Films. The film has many interesting things to know about.
The film is directed and produced by successful director Chandan Arora. There are six music directors worked for this film. Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vishal Bharadwaj, Swananad Kirkere, Sailendra Kumar, Blaz and Amit Trivedhi are the six persons who gave music to this film. Hero Siddarth, who has some singing experience in his earlier films, sang in this film also. Striker is releasing on 5th of February. (more...)
Avatar bigger than Titanic
James Cameroon’s latest offering Avatar has overtaken his earlier directorial venture Titanic. For almost ten years Titanic was the biggest grosser in world cinema with collections worth $1.84bn. Now Avatar has already crossed $1.85bn and still counting.
James Cameroon has been having the idea of Avatar for almost 14 years before he could put it on celluloid. Now the film is a reality and his story has come true.
Avatar is going great guns as yet and the film is likely to reach greater heights in due course time. (more...)
New NRI babe makes waves in T’wood
Ever since Shekhar Kammula delivered three back-to-back hits Anand, Godavari and Happy Days, a role in his film is considered a passport to stardom in Tollywood. And the two-films-old actor, Priya Anand, bagged just that when she was chosen to play the lead opposite Rana Daggubati in the much-hyped film, Leader. The 20-something NRI has already become the toast of the industry and has signed the dotted line for another film, Rama Rama Krishna Krishna, opposite Ram, even before her debut film has hit the theatres.
Talking about her entry into showbiz, Priya says, “I came down from the US to visit my grandparents in Chennai and I was approached for a film. After acting in Vaamanan and Pugaippadam in Tamil, I got my first movie offer from the Telugu film industry, which I rejected. I wanted my debut to be a more meaningful film. That’s when I decided to audition for Shekhar Kammula’s Leader. It feels good to be part of a movie which promises to have a social impact and aims at getting the audience to think. It’s not often that we make such movies,” she says.
Unlike other imports, Priya dubs for her own films. “I grew up in Hyderabad and Chennai. Since my mom is a Tamilian and dad a Telugu, we spoke English at home. But I grew up watching Telugu cinema, so it wasn’t tough for me to pick up the language. I like dubbing for my own movies as it gives an authenticity to my roles. It also adds to my credibility as an actress in both Telugu and Tamil industries.” And if films don’t work, Priya even has a plan B in place. “I have studied journalism and if I ever quit films, I can always get into production.” (more...)
Happy Birthday to Ravi Teja
Hero Ravi Teja is celebrating his birthday today. On this occasion, two of his new ventures were announced.
One is titled Veera, being produced by Tolly to Holly production house. Ganesh Indukuri, who recently produced Pravarakhyudu, is the producer.
Ramesh Varma is the director. He said that there would be three heroines in the film. The film would have its regular shooting from April.
Camera will be handled by Syam K Naidu, while Devi Sri Prasad would score the music. Dialogues and script are by Paruchuri brothers.”
The second venture is on Yellow Flowers banner. Harish Shankar would direct this film. Ramesh Puppala would produce it. The regular shoot would commence from May.
Thaman S will score the music and RD Rajasekhar would handle the camera. (more...)
Gummadi Passes Away
Gummadi Venkateswara Rao (82), the legend of Telugu film industry passes away today at Care Hospital, Hyderabad.
He was admitted into the hospital as he turned severely ill. Both his kidneys were failed and followed by that, it resulted in multi organ failure. Gummadi was earlier affected with paralysis but got convalesced fighting with it. He appeared last in the movie ‘Kasinayana’ in 2008 while his first movie was Adrushta Deepudu in 1950. He was born on 9th July 1927.
His last recorded video was on 20th January 2010 when he shared his views on color-Mayabazaar.
Incidentally, this great legend once declared that he was the fan of our greatandhra.com columnist, writer, critic, translator, biographer, TV anchor and historian MBS Prasad. Greatandhra.com expresses deep condolences to the family members of Gummadi. (more...)
Balakrishna wants to direct
Yuvaratna Balakrishna wants to direct a film. The actor in his early 50s has stated that the desire to direct a movie is strong in him. He made this statement when he met the press at a shooting spot recently. He was filming for his film Simha at a holy town, when he made this confession.
It may be remembered that Balakrishna took the mantle some years ago, to remake the legendary film Narthanashala. The film got shelved off very soon, after it went on the floors for a few days.
Soundarya, its prime actress passed away in a few months' time, and even the star got embroiled in a controversy. The remake never became a reality.
After five years, Balakrishna has said that he wants to direct a film,for the first time. His statements would definitely assume some prominence because it might be construed as reflecting of imminent materialization in the next few months.
Let's wait and watch if Balayya goes back to Narthanashala, this time too. (more...)
