Chenna Kesava Reddy confirmed for Balayya

In the muhurat function of Balayya's film with B Gopal today, Balayya announced the title for his film under production as Chenna Kesava Reddy. According to the unconfirmed news, audio function of Chenna Kesava Reddy would be held on 29th of August in a public function held at Kakinada. The muhurat of Balayya's new film was held today (23rd August) at 7:15 am. Dasari switched on the camera and Paruchuri bothers clapped for the first shot. Story for this film is given by the story-writers-team Posani Krishna Murali, Anjaneya Pushpanand and Vijayendra Prasad (who also gave the story of Rowdy Inspector) is working for this film. This film would be having 'planaadu' backdrop. Chinni Krishna is not providing story, as announced earlier. Sreya and Arti Agrawal are paired up with Bala Krishna in this film.

Roja weds Selvamani

Telugu actress Roja entered nuptial knot with Tamil director Selvamani today (21st August) at Tirumala. Andhra Pradesh Honorable Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu graced the occasion to bless the couple. Incidentally Roja's first film Cherubanti (a Tamil one later dubbed into Telugu as 'Chemanti') is directed by Selvamani. Their relationship started at that point and made news on and off. After a steady relationship for more than 10 years, this couple finally decided to marry each other. Reception would be held in Chennai on 22nd of August in Chennai.

First Generation Actress Rushendra Mani is no more

First Generation Actress Rushendra Mani expired on 17th of August 2002 in Chennai. She made debut in films in 1935 as heroine with C Pullaiah's home production venture 'Krishna Tulabharam'. She acted as heroine apposite KS Prakasa Rao in 'Patni' in 1942. She is also a good singer and orator. She acted in 150 films in various languages like Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. Her work in Seetarama Jananam, Malliswari, Chintamani, Vipra Narayana and Veera Brahmendra Swamy Charitra won her many laurels. Her last film was 'Sri Shirdi Sai Baba Mahatyam' that was directed and produced by Vijaya Chandar.

Best Actor Award for Balayya

AP Cine Goers association announced the 32nd Year film awards. Balayya won the best actor award for his performance in 'Narasimha Naidu'. The function would be held on 1st September 2002 in Tagore Auditorium, Osmania University Campus, Hyderabad. Laya bagged the award of best actress for the film 'Preminchu'. B Gopal is selected as the best director for the film 'Narasimha Naidu'. Srihari is awarded special jury award for his performance in 'Bhadrachalam'. Forty-five more technicians and actors would be awarded during this function. Balayya has given a written letter to AP Cine Goers that he would be attending the function to accept the best actor award.

Love stories on Rakhi day

JD Art's debut venture 'Sontham' in the direction of Seenu Vytla and Vaishno Academy's debut venture 'Idiot' in the direction of Poori Jagannath are slated for release on 22nd of August, which is incidentally falls on the day of Rakhi. The earlier plan was to release these films on 23rd August. But to catch the holiday crowds on Rakhi day, the producers advanced the release date by a day. Both the producers are doing extensive publicity for these films with JD Arts going an extra mile ahead to build brand equity for their maiden venture. There is another reason why Idiot is releasing on 22nd of August. The hero of this film Ravi Teja acted as a hardcore Chiranjeevi fan in 'idiot'. There is a song - Sye sara sara sye Chiru Chindey - celebrating the release of Indra at Sudarshan 35mm, that was canned much before the release of Indra using its cutouts and posters. Both these films sport new heroines Rakshita and Namitha.

Ranga recommended Srihari to Dasari

Mass hero Srihari celebrated his birthday on 15th August, which incidentally falls on the Indian Independence Day. In an interview given to a local magazine, Srihari mentioned that it was the deceased factionist Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga who recommended him to Dasari as hero for Ranga's venture 'Chaitanya Ratham'. Then Dasari seems to have convinced Ranga that the film should not be done with new cast, as it might be a risky proposition. And Dasari also seems to have assured Srihari that he would make Srihari hero one day. After a few days, Srihari started his career as an actor with Dasari's Brahma Naidu.

Jayam to be remade in Tamil

Editor Mohan has bought the Tamil rights of Jayam from Chitram Movies. M Raja, who directed the last year's blockbuster 'Hanuman Junction' would be directing the Tamil version of Jayam. Other details of the film are being worked out. Editor Mohan is planning his next Telugu straight venture with Venu as hero in the direction of Ram Prasad. Ram Prasad directed Chirunavvuto (with Venu) and Seema Simham (with Balayya) in the past.

Rajni releases Telugu Baba on his own

Rajnikanth sold Tamil version of Baba at an exorbitant prices, as he was pretty confidant that the theme, texture and emotion of the film strike the rights chords in the hearts of Tamil viewers. But at the same time, he was little hesitant about how Telugu viewers receive this film, as there might be nativity problem. All his earlier blockbusters since Basha were dubbed in Telugu and proved to be great hits as all of them have out and out mass elements. Telugu distributors were ready to dole out any amount of money to grab rights Baba (Telugu) rights. But Rajni is not comfortable about selling Telugu rights to anybody because if the film becomes flop, some people might feel bad about Rajni after losing their money. He wants to make everybody happy with his supposed - to - be the last film. Hence, he personally talked with various distributors in AP and releasing Telugu version of Baba in AP and USA on his own with the help of local distributors.

N T Ratnaa to crash land on 11th September

11th September suddenly found an unceremonious place in the annals of history with the crash landing of multiple passenger-loaded airplanes on the landmarks of USA and created a worldwide tragedy in the year 2001. Though it is just coincidence, NT Ratnaa's debut vehicle 'Okato Number Kurraadu' costarring Rekha (of Anandam) fame is releasing on 11th September 2002. Swapna Cinema, which gave a blockbuster 'Student No.1' in the last year, is producing it in the direction of A Kodandarami Reddy. Audio of this film is expected to be released on 19th of August 2002. Keeravani composes music. Aswini Dutt and K Raghavendra Rao are jointly producing this film.

KRR's 100th film is a tender love story

According to the reliable sources, K Raghavendra Rao's 100th directorial venture is going to be a tender love story between school going girl and boy. Earlier it was decided that K Raghavendra Rao's film would have Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna in the main lead. But due to some unknown reasons that project was delayed and K Raghavendra Rao is all set to wield magic again on Telugu silver screen with a tender love story.

Chakri is back in Telugu Films

Chakri acted in his last film Amritha, before embarking on fulltime direction in Bollywood. He announced a couple of projects in his direction out of which one project is going to star Priyanka Chopra. But all those projects seem to be put on backburner as he decided to comeback into Tollywood with a comedy flick to be produced by Trimurthy film. Trimurthy films has dubbed films like Mummy and Roja Poolu in the past. Rama Chandra Rao (of Chitram Bhalare Vichitram') is directing this film. Ramesh Arvind plays another important role. Thotapally Madhu pens dialogues. MV Raghu handles camera.

Venky to do his next venture with JD Arts?

According to unconfirmed sources, JD Arts that is making 'Sontham' with Seenu in the direction Vytla now would produce Venky's next film. Kasi Viswanath of 'Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu' fame would direct this film. Devi Sri Prasad is reportedly signed as music director. Suresh Productions would be presenting this venture. This news is yet to be confirmed by the respective producers.

Gunasekhar's dream role of Chatrapati for Mahesh Babu

In a news snippet given to a local magazine 'Santosham', director Guna Sekhar wished to see Mahesh Babu in the role of legendry historical Maratha icon 'Chatrapati Sivaji'. As per the description, the poster designer Suresh Bujji did a graphic illustration of how Mahesh Babu would look like if he donned the get up of 'Chatrapati Sivaji'. Click on the thumbnail on the right to see the bigger image. Guna Sekhar seems to have mentioned about his idea of making film with Mahesh as Sivaji. Mahesh seems to given his characteristic sweet smile as an answer without saying either 'yes' or 'no'.

Kamal Hassan to donate his body

We have seen people pledging eyes to charitable trusts. Kamal Hassan is going to do a greater noble thing by signing on dotted lines to donate his body to Madras Medical College for research purpose after his death. Sruthi Hassan, the elder daughter of Kamal Hassan, would be handing over the documents to Dr. Ravindranath, the director of Madras Medical College.

Namitha - craziest heroine in making

Namitha (see Sontham Gallery) seems to be the cynosure of all industry people now. She just finished her stint as heroine in JD Arts 'Sontham' and is currently working with Venky for 'Gemini'. JD Arts has a 3-film contract with Namitha. She is not supposed to act in outside films till the three films of JD Arts with Namitha as heroine are released. But Suresh Babu, who has an eye for all the best girls in the industry noticed Namitha and requested JD Arts to let her off for a project with Venky by Suresh Productions. JD Arts people are too happy to do that. In the past too, Suresh Babu introduced Tabu (who, then known as Swaty) in Telugu though 'Coolie No.1' though she was under contract with Boney Kapoor production at that time.

Chiranjeevi is not acting in Baba

The official sources of Lotus Films at Chennai confirmed that Chiranjeevi is not doing any guest role in Baba. Initially, they had a wish of having Chiranjeevi doing a special role in the film. But, for some unknown reasons the idea is dropped. Rajnikant came up with an innovating business plan for Tamil Baba. The tickets for this film are sold out for several weeks in Taminadu. Each ticket packet is priced at Rs 300/-. That ticket packet consists of two tickets and one audiocassette. Rajnikanth has taken permission from Jaya Lalitha, the chief minister of Tamilnadu to hike prices. Baba is releasing in Telugu on 15th August with 100 prints. Shyam Prasad Reddy, the producer of Chiru's next release 'Anji', would be following similar kind of model in Telugu with 'Anji' film. Only graphic work is pending for the film. This film would get released as soon as the work is completed at Digitalia, UK. Anji might be released either for Dasara 2002 or Sankranthi 2003.

Mahesh Babu to celebrate birthday in Chennai

Mahesh Babu would be celebrating his birthday on 9th August along with his family members in Chennai. He is currently doing two films namely 'Baabee' and 'Okkadu' which are slated for release in September and December respectively. Mahesh Babu is taking care that there would be one film every three months henceforth. Next Mahesh Babu project is going to be VV Vinayak's film to be produced by Bellamkonda Suresh. His future films include two films by home productions that are going to be directed by Surya and Trivikram respectively. Trivikram Srinivas and Arjuna Raju have a film each in the pipeline. Then comes a film is by Andhra Talkies (Krishna Vamsi) and JFC (Jayant C Paranjee). Chanti Addala of Friendly movies would be producing a film in the direction of Poori Jagannath.

MS Raju 'Varsham'

MS Raju register a title 'Varsham' the film chamber. This film has a caption 'Rain stops.. But love never stops'. MS Raju himself prepares Varsham story. Some of the portion of the film would be shot in New York, USA. A set worth two crores is getting erected in green farms of Godari District. The estimated budget for this film is 10 crores. Varsham might hit floors in January 2003 (after Mahesh Babu Okkadu release). The other cast and crew is yet to be decided.

RP Patnaik opts out of Rama Krishna Horticulture project

Popular music director opted out of Rama Krishna Horticulture project with Taraka Ratna in the direction of Uppalapati Narayana Rao. He scored a couple of songs that were penned by Kula Sekhar and then settled the account and opted out due to some unknown reasons. It is not known who is replacing RP in that project.

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