Stars turning vegetarians on the sets of Maan Gaye

It is not only the unit member but also the stars that religiously followed a vegetarian diet on the sets of MAAN GAYE MUGHAL-E-AZAM.

It all started when Rahul, Paresh and Mallika learnt that producer Ratan Jain is vegetarian and did not like non-vegetarian dishes being ordered on the sets. The actors respected Jain's feelings and turned vegetarians themselves. When the unit members learnt about it, they cooperated too.

Sanjay Chhel and Ratan Jain, who are strict vegetarians, still haven't got over the sensitivity that Rahul, Paresh and Mallika displayed by going vegetarian on the sets of MAAN GAYE MUGHAL-E-AZAM.

So it was an all veg fest on the sets of Maan Gaye...!

Hats off to... or should we say Maan Gaye Rahul, Mallika and Paresh!

Reliance Big Entertainment ties up with T-Series

Reliance Big Entertainment has tied up with T-Series for the release of the forthcoming film KARZZZ starring multi talented Himesh Reshammiya. Reliance Big Entertainment has acquired the world theatrical and satellite rights for the film. This is Himesh Reshammiya’s second venture where he combines his acting skills with his musical talent.

Himesh’s earlier film AAP KA SURROOR rocked the world and had set new trends in the film industry. Reliance Big Entertainment will release the film KARZZZ, directed by Satish Kaushik (a remake of the Subhash Ghai’s timeless classic) worldwide.

Commenting on the association, Rajesh Sawhney, President, Reliance Big Entertainment said “We are delighted to present a potent combination of talented Himesh and the classic hit KARZ. We are confident that the Karzzz will remake history. We look forward to launching great projects under the ambit of this relationship.”

The trio Himesh Reshammiya, Satish Kaushik and Bhushan Kumar earlier came together in the musical "Tere Naam". They are now back with the mega musical "Karzzzz” that is all set to hit the screens in October’ 08, of which the promos will be on air July onwards.

"Karzzzz” is a lavishly produced film, which will see Himesh Reshammiya portraying the role of Rishi Kapoor as in the original. Not just that, Himesh will also score a hat trick by acting, singing and composing the music for the film. The rest of the star cast include Urmila Matondkar , Raj Babbar, Danny Denzongpa, Gulshan Grover, Rohini Hatangadi and the dream debutante Shweta Kumar (the daughter of celebrated filmmaker Inder Kumar).

Kim Sharma to shake legs with Ram Charan

The shooting of the latest film of Ram Charan Teja, directed by SS Rajamouli and produced by Allu Aravind on the banner of Gita Arts with Kaajal playing the female lead is progressing well.

According to information, the film will have two item numbers. Kim Sharma, who played one of the heroines in 'Khadgam' of Krishnavamsi, is likely to shake legs in one of the item numbers.

Though she played in one film in Telugu, she almost settled in Hindi films. Later, there were rumours that she was dating with criciet Yuvraj Singh.

Sources in the film unit says, 'The special song on Kim Sharma would be shot during the end of next month. The film has music from Keeravani.

Adugu’s final schedule in June 1st week

Veera Prasad Neelam’s ‘Adugu’ has just finished shooting some important scenes along with two songs in Araku, Vizag. With the final schedule in Hyderabad from June 1st week, the film is likely to complete the talkie part.

This film produced by Bommakanti Madhavi under Madhavi Art Productions Banner has a new lead pair Samarendra and Richa Soni with the supporting cast including Suman, Tanikella Bharani, Dr Bramhanandam, M S Narayana, Ali, Rao Ramesh etc.

AP Film Council bans Prakash Raj

Fed up with his un professionalism and lack of responsibility the Andhra Pradesh Film Producer’s Council has banned Nandi Award winning character actor Prakash Raj from the Telugu film industry. In a media advertisement, released on May 30th, the state council stated that it has decided to for go the services of the actor and urged film makers not to make him a part of their productions.

Many a film’s in the recent past, including the high profile films Kantri and Jalsa, had run into production delays due to the actors unprofessional attitude of turning up late on the sets. The state council had once before banned Prakash Raj, on the request of producers, from acting in Telugu films but after the actor staged a hunger strike the ban was lifted and a warning given. But Prakash Raj hand not amended his ways and continued to be a trouble for the producers. Wonder what he will do this time to lift the ban.

Pandurangadu - movie review

Director Raghavendra Rao, who is known for bringing out excellent commercial films, changed his way and started bringing out devotional and periodical films. His films like 'Manjunatha', 'Annamayya' and 'Sri Ramadasu' were proved runaway hits.

The audiences had kept lot of expectations on 'Pandurangadu' coming from the same director in the same technical combination. However, this time, Raghavendra Rao chose Balakrishna as hero for the film, which was prepared with an inspiration from the earlier classic 'Panduranga Mahatmyam'. However, the film could not stand on par with the earlier classic and remained just an okay film.

Pundareeka (Balakrishna) comes from a family full of Lord Krishna devotees. But he grows up as a wayward and irresponsible youth, who whiles away his time by enjoying the girls. Being handsome, all the girls are naturally after him. Lakshmi (Sneha) is an orphan and was brought up by a priest (Balayya). Being from an orthodox family, Lakshmi also preaches Lord Krishna. Pundareeka gets fascinated to a prostitute called Amritha (Tabu) and keeps spending nights with her always. Once, Lord Krishna appears in a dream to Lakshmi and tells her that Pundareeka would be her husband. Lakshmi impresses the entire family of Pundareeka, but fails to win his heart.

After a few days, with the intervention of Lord Krishna, she could manage to marry Pundareeka. But, he disappoints Lakshmi and goes to Amritha even after tying the nuptial knot. Again, it was Lord Krishna who comes to Lakshmi's rescue and unites Pundareeka with Lakshmi. When they were leading a joyous life, Amritha's mother (Y Vijaya) hatches a plan and swindles his entire property. Due to the impact of medication by Amritha's mother, Pundareeka throws out the entire family out of house, while he too gets vacated by the former. Did Pundareeka realise his mistake? Did he meet his parents again? What happened to the marital life of Pundareeka? Did Lord Krishna gives salvation to Pundareeka? Answers to all these questions form part of the climax.

Balakrishna was at his best as far as performance. However, he could not appear young and the close up shots picturised on him showed that he was quite older. More so, he played dual roles in the film, not only as the devotee Pundareeka, but also as Lord Krishna. The second role was not etched properly by the director.

Tabu was romantic in all the scenes and she appeared half-naked in almost all the scenes without saree or half-saree. But the audiences had to understand that she needed to remain like that because her character in the film was a prostitute.

Sneha continued her family girl image again in this movie.

The director did not leave her too and projected her in a romantic way in one of the songs. Viswanath, Balayya, Prasadbabu, Sivaparvati and Sana did justice to their respective roles.

Comedy track picturised on Sunil, Brahmanandam failed to click in any manner.

Mohanbabu made a special appearance in the film and appears only in two scenes. He proved that he was the best and right choice for the character.

Behind the screen, writer JK Bharavi did complete injustice to the subject. He spoiled the entire spirit of the film which is devotional in nature. Instead of filling devotion, most part of the film was devoted to romance and romantic scenes. The dialogues in the film was also not properly written. They were neither colloquial (vaaduka bhasha) nor literary (grandhika bhasha). Use of words like 'anta sannivesam ledu' in dialogues, 'willu' (a Telugised English word for 'will') in songs spoiled the spirit of the film.

Camera work by Jayaram is just okay, while editing by Srikara Prasad is fine.

Music by MM Keeravani is worth listening.

Screenplay by seasoned director like Raghavendra failed to maintain the tempo. The director rendered the entire episode with Lord Krishna and his eight wives in a dramatised version and the audiences would get a feel of watching a stage play and not as a regular film.

As a whole the film was very poorly narrated with a changed version of the entire story. In the original, the hero renders the all-time favourite song 'Hey Krishna Mukunda Murari' like a lullaby to his father, in this film it was used in another situation. The prolonged climax, after the death of heroine also tested the patience of audiences. LB Sriram as Narada was horrendous and he failed to please any section of audiences. But for a 20-minute film (30 minutes after the interval and 30 minutes before the climax), the entire film was boring. Especially, the glow in the face of the hero (of the late NT Rama Rao in Panduranga Mahatmyam) was completely missing in this hero (of Pandurangadu)

Cast: Balakrishna, Sneha, Tabu, K Viswanath, Mohanbabu (special appearance), Balayya, Prasad Babu, Sameer, Sunil, Dharmavarapu Subrahmanyam, Ali, Anant, LB Sriram, Jr Relangi, Brahmanandam, Jenny, Siva Parvati, Sana, Archana (Veda), Suhasini, Meghana Naidu, Y Vijaya, Apoorva, Sireesha, Bhargavi, Neethu, Baby Kavya and others

Credits: Story and dialogues – JK Bharavi, Camera – Jayaram, Editing – Srikara Prasad, Music – MM Keevarani, Producer – K Krishnamohana Rao, Screenplay and direction – K Raghavendra Rao.

Banner: RK Associates

Released on: May 30, 2008

Vietnamese fighters in 'Sultan The Warrior'

Soundarya is leaving no efforts to make 'Sulthan The Warrior' a product that will be termed as an animation movie having the same kind of standard shown previously by all the hit animation films created by the leading film and animation studios in the world.

For giving a particular action scene the maximum perfection which can be achieved, Soundarya along with the action choreographer of the film Peter Hein have gone to Vietnam.

The action scenes which will be shot in Vietnam will not be seen in the film as everyone knows the film is a fully animated one and do not require real actors.

The head of Ocher studios and her team of technicians are in Vietnam to shoot the action shots just for using it as reference points for similar scenes to be shown in 'Sultan The Warrior'.

But then why Vietnam and why it is being shot using some fighters of that country when there is enough and more facilities and junior artists right here in Chennai, is a question that can pop up.

The native fighters who are participating in the action scenes can be only found in Vietnam and they are the only ones in the world who are capable of doing the action scenes which are required as per the necessity of the story of 'Sultan The Warrior'.

These fighters are labeled as guys who can even challenge the laws of gravity and come out with stunning, unbelievable flexible movements as never seen before.

'Sultan The Warrior' is already hot in the film circles because of the reason that Superstar Rajinikanth will be seen in a complete 3D animation avatar for the first time.

Now this news of this variety action scene has added up to the excitement surrounding the film.

Annayya to decide about his party soon – Pavan Kalyan

As we are aware, the polling of the by-elections at Khairatabad Constituency is going on presently. Many top shots like Megastar Chiranjeevi, D. Ramanaidu, Allu Aravind, Pawan Kalyan, badminton player Pullela Gopi Chand etc., have given their votes, but, due to the names missing from the voters list some of them had gone back disappointedly.

Pawan Kalyan, who came to give his vote to the polling booth, was surrounded by a mob of press people to ask about Chiranjeevi’s Party details. Answering to the media Pawan said, “You will get the answer only from Annayya regarding the Party formation details because it’s he who will make the final decision. Annayya will soon come out with clear-cut views about his party.”