31st December 2002

Ramana on Indra's release date?
As per the unconfirmed reports, the camp of Chiranjeevi has recently bought the Telugu remake rights of Tamil blockbuster 'Ramana' by paying 1.2 crores. An announcement about the same would be made official when Chiranjeevi returns to Hyderabad in New Year 2003. The script work is almost done and there are quite a bit of alterations made in the script. For example, in Tamil version the hero would be hanged to death. But it is not so in Telugu version. As per the confidential sources, this film might be released on 24th July 2003, which happened to be the release date of Indra. Vijaya Bapineedu might produce this film. Director and other crew are yet to be finalized.

Suresh Kondepi's success
Suresh Kondepi is a youngster who started his career as journalist with 'Krishna Patrika'. He later joined Vaartha newspaper and maintained the 'Tera' section effectively and then launched his own film magazine 'Santosham'. He launched this magazine with the profits he got through distribution of Santosham film in Godari district. He started SK films distribution agency and bought five films - Student No.1, Abhay, Allari Ramudu, Santosham, Idiot and Thottigang. Except for Abhay, all other films turned out to be blockbusters. He is considered as lucky hand among the distribution circles in Godari districts. His film magazine Santosham made splashes in readers' circle and got good subscription base. SK films has arranged a pressmeet recently to celebrate its success in distribution. All the editors of film magazines attended the same and expressed their wishes to Suresh Kondepi.

Rohit's film titled as 'Anaganaga O Kurradu'
LP Rama Rao, a protégé of Poori Jagannath, is making his debut as director with a film titled 'Anaganaga O Kurradu'. Rohit and Rekha are playing mainleads. Katta Rambabu is producing this film on 'Sai Ooha Creations banner'. Chakri has given music. Talkie part of this film is complete except for 5 days work. The unit is moving to Singapore and Malaysia to can 3 songs on 8th of January 2003. This film is all about how an ambitious guy becomes entrepreneur in his own style.

28th December

Raghupati Venkayya award for Allu Ramalingaiah & TL Kantha Rao
The Government of AP has announced the prestigious Raghupati Venkayya award to yesteryears hero KL Kantha Rao and veteran Telugu comedy artist Allu Ramalingaiah for the year 2000 and 2001 respectively. This award would be given to Allu Ramalingaiah and TL kantha Rao by Chandra Babu Naidu - CM of AP - during the Nandi Awards presentation ceremony in the year 2003.

Sumanth's re-entry in Jan 2003
Sumanth, of Premakatha fame, is going to try his luck again with a film to be produced on Annapurna banner soon. Suresh, the brother of a popular TV actress Sujitha, would be making his debut as director for this film. Anshu (second heroine of Manmadhudu) and Genelia (heroine of 'Maa Tujhe Kasam' - Hindi version of 'Nuvve Kavali) are expected to be paired up with Sumanth in this film. Chakri is going to provide music. This film would go to floors in the last week of January 2003.

Bellamkonda to make a Malayalam remake
Bellamkonda Suresh, the producer of CKR, has bought the Telugu remake rights of Malayalam hit film 'Kalyanaraman' starring Dileep. He is going to remake this film with a big hero very soon.

Aditya grabs Johnny audio rights
After the heavy bargaining, Aditya is said to have paid the highest amount ever paid to any Telugu film audio and grabbed the audio rights of Johnny.

27th December

NTR award for Bhanumati and Hrishikesh Mukharjee
Padmabhushan Bhanumati and director Hrishikesh Mukharjee are declared as the awardees of National film award given by AP State Government in memory of NT Rama Rao for the years 2001 and 2000 respectively. These two distinguished film personalities would be awarded a memento along with a cash prize of Rs. 5 lakhs each. Idlebrain.com wishes the senior most celebrity actress Padmabushan Bhanumati Rama Krishna many more awards.

Ravi Teja paired up with Sada
Bheemineni Srinivas - the king of remakes - is trying his hand at another remake. This time, he is remaking a Malayalam blockbuster 'Meesa madhavan' that collected around 12 crores and stood as the biggest hit of the year so far. This film has a village backdrop and is about a thief who is proud of his mustache. This film is titled as 'Dongodu' with a caption - 'Meesam melesaada.. anthe! Marudhuri Raja provides dialogues. First schedule of 'Dongodu' starts on 22nd of January 2003.

NTR and Hari Krishna with B Gopal
B Gopal is going to direct a film with sensational combination of NTR and Hari Krishna in the next year. Chengala Venkata Rao, who produced the biggest blockbuster Samarasimha Reddy, would be producing this venture. NTR and Hari Krishna would act as father and son. Arti Agarwal is paired up with NTR in this film. There would be another heroine for NTR. Shooting of this film would start on the day of Vijaya Dasami in 2003. The film is expected to be released for March 2004. This film would be the 10th venture of NTR.

26th December

Small screen hero Achyut is no more
Veteran character artist and popular TV hero Achyut is expired today afternoon (26th December 2002) due to cardiac arrest. He made his debut in TV through the serial Himabindu in 1980's. He acted in 50 serials so far and also did small roles in all the latest faction films (Narasimha Naidu, Aadi and Indra). He won Nandi award for his performance on small screen for 5 times. He is currently acting and producing a TV serial titled Matti manishi that has ANR acting in it.

Nagarjuna's future projects
Nagarjuna is enjoying the success of 'Manmadhudu' now. He is currently listening to the scripts narrated by Poori Jagannath and VN Aditya. He would be traveling to USA in the second week of January 2003. He would start two simultaneous projects when he returns from USA in February. These two projects are going to be Vaishno Academy banner film to be directed by Poori Jagannath and Kamakshi banner film to be directed VN Aditya. Nagarjuna is also listening to the script prepared by Jayanth.

Pop Star Smita sings for Keervani
Smita has recently sung a solo play back song for Ravi Teja starrer "Ee Abbayi Chala Manchi Vadu" in Mr.Keeravani's music Direction. The film is directed by famous Tamil Director Mr.Agatsyan and is due for release in January. The audio of this film was recently released at Hyderabad by Aditya Music.

25th December

Chiranjeevi in abroad for new year
Chiranjeevi has recently returned from his foreign trip and he is again embarking on another foreign jaunt on 26th of this month. Hence, Chiranjeevi would not be celebrating New Year in India. He is expected to be back before the 175 days function of Indra.

Marriage of Hari krishna's son
Janaki Ram, the elder son of Hari Krishna, is getting married to a bride from Kakinada in Kakinada town on 29th of December 20002. All the families of Nandamuri are expected to grace the occasion to bless Janaki Ram. Hari krishna's second son 'Kalyana Ram' is going to make his debut very soon as hero on Usha Kiron Movies banner.

Dasari's first hero is Chandra Mohan
Everybody knows that the first film of veteran director and Guinness book record holder Dasari Narayana Rao's first film is 'Tata Manavadu' and Mohan Babu who made his debut through that film is Dasari's first hero. But it is recently revealed Dasari did ghost direct a film prior to 'Tata Manavadu' and Chandra Mohan acted as hero in that film.

Naga details
'Dhool' song was shot on Jennifer and NTR in Annapurna studios from 21st December to 24th December in the dance direction of Ashok Raj (Gemini title song fame). Rambha is going to dance with NTR for 'Nayudori Pilla' train song from 28th to 30th December on a ghat train track between Nandyal and Kurnool. Nazar plays chief minister in this film and Naga supports CM. NTR is currently working from VMC productions venture that would end by 30th December. The next schedule of VMC venture would start on 31st December and would take place till 15th of February 2003.

23rd December

Wanted: hero and heroine for Radhika's film
Radhika is venturing in Telugu films as producer now. She is planning to produce a Telugu film in the direction of Raju P on Radan Media Works banner. Ramana Gogula would provide music. She is looking for a fresh hero and heroine for this project. Interested aspirants can send in their portfolio to

Radaan Media Works (I) Limited
PB No: 003
Srinagar Colony
Hyderabad - 500 073

Rajasekhar creates confusion over Ramana film
There is lot of furor over who took the rights of Tamil blockbuster 'Ramana'. There was a speculation that Chiranjeevi has seen the Tamil film Ramana and is working over the fine-tuning of the script. Then Raja Sekhar held an official pressmeet to declare that Oscar Ravi Chandran (the producer of Original Ramana) has sold remake rights to him. Today, it took a new turn today when Oscar Films (p) Limited has given an advertisement saying that they have not sold remake rights of 'Ramana' to anybody so far. They would be producing 'Ramana' film on their own. We have to wait and see how many more turns it's going to take now.

19th December

Naga audio on 23rd December
Audio of NTR's film-in-demand 'Naaga' is expected to be officially released on the night of 22nd December 2002 at a private function. Audio would be available in stores by 23rd December. Fourth song of this film is currently being shot in Ramoji Film City under the choreography of Pradeep Anthony. Fifth song would be shot in Annapoorna Studios under dance direction of Ashok Raj (Gemini 'Vey Potu' fame). The last song of the film would be shot on a train at Nandyal railway track. Music for this song would be given by Vidya Sagar. The film Naga is expected to be released with 180 + prints on 10th of January as Sankranthi special.

Mahesh Babu as Seetaram
Mahesh Babu is acting as Seetaram (a college student role) in Teja's Nijam. Shooting of this film would start on 20th December at Gayam House (located near Prasanth Kuteer) with the combination of Raasi and Gopichand. Mahesh Babu who is currently in abroad for Okkadu shoot would be joining Nijam unit by 22nd December. This film would be finished in continuous schedules to be taken place at Hyderabad and Tirupati. There would be 16 songs (9 full songs and seven bit songs). Rakshita is acting as main heroine and Raasi is playing a vital role. Around 30 artists are making their debut through this film. The other cast in the film includes Raghuvaran, Gopichand, Talluri Rameswari, Brahmaji and Suman Setty. Sameer Reddy handles camera. RP provides music. Kulasekhar pens lyrics.

Fourteen songs in Johnny?
Shooting of Pawan Kalyan's Johnny is taking place in and around Hyderabad at brisk pace. Pawan Kalyan is acting as the martial arts coach and a Christian man. There are expected to be 14 songs in this film out of which four are said to be sung by Pawan Kalyan himself. It is also rumored that there is one old song rerecorded in this film like 'Aaduvari maatalaku' for Kushi. Special effects are going to play a vital role in this film. The man who does special works for Jackie Chan's films is roped in for Johnny as well. This film is shaping up for 28th March 2003 release.

Chiru, Venky and Mahesh wishes for world cup
Telugu film heroes lent their part of support in wishing Indian Team a great success in the Cricket World Cup to be played at South Africa next year. Mahesh Manjrekar is preparing a music album pledging support for Indian Cricket team. As a part of this music video, Mahesh Manjrekar is said to have asked Teja to helping him out in getting Telugu celebrities and Teja (Teja gave story for Mahesh Manjrekar's film Pitah) managed to get Chiranjeevi, Venkatesh and Mahesh for the shoot of this album. Sameer Reddy handled the camera. The other celebrities who acted in this album are Amitab Bachchan, Sharukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Anil Ambani etc.

18th December

2 releases for Manmadhudu
Nagarjuna's latest offing 'Manmadhudu' got censored on 16th of this month. This film is set for the release on 20th of this month with 104 prints in Andhra alone. The simultaneous release for Karnataka is not yet confirmed. It's going to have 11-print release in Karnataka. Preview of this film was held at Annapurna studios on 17th of December. According to the patrons, this film is expected to be received by audience the way they received 'Nuvvu Naaku nachav', which means that it would start with weak talk, gain the momentum in 2 weeks and then go on to become a blockbuster. Nagarjuna is so much confident about this film that he distributed the film for entire Andhra by distributing it on NRA basis. The producer is planning to have a late release in few centers on 15th of January 2003 with 50 prints again, which eventually make it a 165-print release in a gap of 25 days. This 2nd release is aimed at cashing the mad rush during Sankranthi 2003 season.

Okkadu on 15th of January 2003
Mahesh Babu's Okkadu is releasing on 15th of January with 130 prints. The unit is currently in South East Asian country (located near Malaysia - the location where 'Cheppave Prema' duet was canned on Uday and Reema for Manasanta Nuvve) to shoot a duet on Mahesh Babu and Bhumika Chawla. This film is made on a mega budget of 15 crores and the producer MS Raju is said to have sold for a much higher price to the distributors. The price offered for Nizam was unbelievable. A new distribution outfit named 'RUPAM' bought Nizam rights of Okkadu. This RUPAM is a conglomeration of bigwigs of film industry. R stands for RB Chowdary (Supergood films), U stands for Umesh Gupta (Aditya Music MD), P stands for Paras Jain (Maruthi distributors) A for Appa Rao Vakada (executive producer of Supergood banner) and M stand for Mansoor Ahmed. Somebody jucolarly mentioned that 'Okkadu' is not affordable for any Okkadu (single distributor). Hence a group of distributors bought it. This film is sold for Mahavir films in Ceded, Alankar Prasad for Krishna and Sarat-Sangam complex owner in Uttarandhra area.

Publicity blitz by EVV for Thottigang
Using Vinyl hoardings is the latest fad in poster publicity. Generally we see 70 - 80 Vinyl hoardings for big films all over Andhra Pradesh. But for a small budget film like Thottigang, EVV has ordered for 180 vinyl hoardings. Generally the distributor is supposed to buy the publicity material directly from the printers. But in this case, EVV has paid around 20 lakhs for these vinyl posters and distributed them to distributors and exhibitors. EVV's efforts to build a brand for his home banner 'EVV Cinema' are commendable

16th December

Talluri Rameswari as Mahesh mom
After futile attempts to role in hot heroines of yesteryears (Rekha, Sridevi and Vijaya Shanti), Teja has picked up not so popular yesteryears heroine Talluri Rameswari to act as Mahesh Babu's mother in Nijam. Talluri Rameswari acted in popular director K Viswanath's blockbuster 'Seeta Maha Lakshmi' (1978). Later on she faded into oblivion, as she did not get success in Telugu films. This dusky and demure lady became an overnight star in Bollywood with Rajashri's 'Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye'. We have to wait and see how her career as mother would take of with Nijam. Nijam would go to floors on 20th of December 2002.

Chiranjeevi acts in a sports-related ad
Megastar Chiranjeevi worked for a small sport-related advertisement today (16th December 2002). This advertisement shoot was taken place using a handheld video camera in Geeta Arts office. Popular Bollywood director Mahesh Manjrekar directed this ad. The producer of Hindi film 'Kaante' is also seen on the shooting spot.

Uthsaaham film in controversy
The lyrics written by 'Golkonda' Veerender for the song 'Otti Chepala Butta Nettina Bettukunna' from Uthsaaham have turned sour to the fisher community in AP. Chakri sung this song. The fisher community has submitted a memorandum to the CM Chandra Babu Naidu and HM Devender Goud to summon the filmmakers to either alter lyrics or remove song from Uthsaaham film. This film has Suneeta Varma, Sai Kiran and Amar in main leads. Allani Sreedhar directs this film.