Film Gossips

Southern star Siddharth, who plans to turn producer next year, says he is the “Shah Rukh Khan” of the Telugu film industry and that romance will always be his forte even though he is popular for his intense roles in Hindi movies like “Rang De Basanti”.

“I do a lot of romantic roles in Telugu films. In fact when people say you are the Aamir Khan of Telugu films, I say I am the Shah Rukh Khan of the film industry. I do all the ‘Tujhe dekha toh ye jaana sanam’ type of sequences in Telugu,” Siddharth told IANS in an interview.

“I do romantic movies as my mainstay and when I want to change my mood, I do a ‘Striker’ or a ‘Rang De Basanti’. Now that I have done a serious film like ‘Striker’, I need to go back to my strengths and do a romantic film,” said Siddharth, who has done Telugu films like “Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana” and “Bommarillu”.

At the same time, the actor, who played the intense Karan Singhania in “Rang De Basanti” and a Mumbai-based carrom player in crime thriller “Striker”, stressed that doing romantic roles is not a cakewalk.

“I find romantic films, which are on a lighter vein in Telugu, as challenging as serious dramatic films in Hindi – both are equally tough. The important thing is that you have to find a nice script and I think ‘Striker’ was one of the nicest scripts I have read in my career because I found it a very realistic film.

“My next Hindi film would be a more light-hearted one. I wanted to do a light-hearted one for now because when you do a serious role, you need to come out of it. I want to give as much time as I can to Hindi,” he said.

Siddharth made his debut in Bollywood with “Rang De Basanti” in 2006. He took a four-year break before his second release “Striker” but now plans to do more Hindi films.

The beautifull actress Kajal Agarwal, who created sensation with her performance in ‘Magadheera’, has bagged a prestigious offer under MS Raju’s production banner in which she plays the lead role. The movie has been titled as ‘Chandi’. It is being directed by famous director Kodi Rama Krishna. The movie will be announced officially on May 10 coinciding with MS Raju’s birthday event. At present, Kajal is also acting opposite Jr. Ntr in ‘Brindavanam’.

Jnr NTR’s engagement with Pranathi was held today early morning in a private hotel, Hyderabad. The function was attended by couples immediate family and few noted names of cine fraternity which includes Meher Ramesh, Dil Raju, VV Vinayak, Rajamouli.

Lakshmi Pranathi, daughter of Narne Srinivasa Rao and Narne Mallika. Mallika is the niece of the Telugu Desam Party President Nara Chandrababu Naidu Pranathi is 18 yrs old and is currently doing her final year Intermediate at a private college in Hyderabad.

Earlier, Shanti Prasad, a lawyer, approached Machilipatnam Legal Services Authority claiming that Narne Lakshmi Pranati was a minor and so the wedding would be illegal. The authority issued notice to Jnr NTR, Naidu and the girl’s father Narne Srinivas Rao, who is the owner of Telugu news channel Studio N.

The wedding was confirmed on May 9th.

Radhika Apte is the debut heroine of the multiple National Award winning Bengali film, Antaheen. (No, she did not get any National Award.) Now the lady is all set to make her Bollywood debut with RGV’s Raktha Charitra opposite Vivek Oberoi.

Raktha Charitra is based on the life of Paritala Ravi, a prime suspect in many murders. Radhika Apte will play the role of Paritala Ravi’s wife in the film. The film is a trilingual (Hindi, Telugu and Tamil).

“We haven’t finished shooting RC yet. It should get done by May. Ramu is fantastic and I’m lucky to have been cast in this film. He has immense clarity and works at great pace. His style of film-making is completely different from that of Aniruddha’s,” she said to a leading English daily.

“I knew about Paritala Ravi before I was approached for the movie. I’m playing Paritala Ravi’s wife. I haven’t met her in real life. Ramu has. He has also narrated stories about her. Besides, there is some footage available on her that I needed to study to ensure that my on-screen look comes close to hers,” she added.

Interestingly, Tamil star Suriya has also been cast in a pivotal role in the film!

Rakta Charitra is produced by Madhu Mantena; Mani Sharma is the music director. The film stars Shatrughan Sinha, Priyamani, Radhika Apte, Subrat Dutta, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sudeep, Zarina Wahab, Raj Babbar and Ranjeet.

Upendra is shooting for his new venture that was launched with fanfare last month. And he promises not to disappoint Kannada, Telugu and Tamil fans.

“I am introducing 20 new artists in the film. The audition itself was the most exciting. Some of them will be seen in all the three languages. If I can prove to all of you that I have made efforts to present a different film, it would be a great victory for me,” he said.

The film’s heroine Nayantara and other artists are joining him for the shoot here.

“I am most worried about the huge expectations built around this film. We will be shooting for more than one hundred days. Some portions of the film will be re-shot for the Telugu and Tamil versions of the film with a particular set of artists belonging to the Telugu and Tamil film industries,” Upendra told IANS.

Upendra also added that he will be using the Super 35 camera for shooting the film. He has not finalised the music director yet but said he plans to select one who would be acceptable to audiences in all the three languages.

Pawan Kalyan’s next venture Love Aaj Kal remake was launched at Taj Krishna in Hyderabad. Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi, MP from Bobbili, tapped the clap for the first shot and Botsa Satyanaryana switched on the camera. Producer Allu Arvind, director Dasari Narayana Rao, K Raghavendra Rao and other noted cine fraternity were present.

Jayant C Paranji has replaced Vijayabhaskar as a director. Popular comedian Ganesh is producing the film. Pawan Kalyan is playing the role, which was played by Saif Ali Khan in the original and efforts are being made to bring Deepika Padukone to play opposite him.
The script is being modified to suit the nativity. Trivikram Srinivas is penning dialogues and other cast and crew are yet to be finalized.

A Huge set was erected at Ramoji film city for Nagarjuna’s Gaganam which will be directed by Radha Mohan of Aakasamantha fame. Producer for this movie is Dil Raju. 60-70% of the movie will be completed at this set. Replica of tirupathi airport was constructed with a Aeroplane. A massive budget of 1.5 crores is spent on this set. The movie is going to be an action thriller based on a true incident of Kandahar hijack episode and the story is all about how Nag saves a passenger flight that is being hijacked. Nagarjuna is said to be playing the role of a cop & Prakash Raj is playing the role of a Terrorist in the film.

This movie is a biligual and the Tamil Version is produced by Prakash Raj. Nagarjuna is doing a direct tamil movie after Rakshakan (Rakshakudu in Telugu) which released long back. Title for the Tamil version is Payanam.

The above poster came in all leading magzines in Tamil Nadu when the movie started shooting.