31 January 2024
Hyderabad

In what is a rare occurrence, a college film will have a part 2 in Telugu soon. Yes, we are talking about light-hearted campus entertainer MAD, which packed quite a punch at the box office when it released last October.

Produced by Sithara Entertainments and Fortune Four Cinemas, the film had an ensemble cast comprising Sangeeth Shobhan, Narne Nithin, Ram Nithin, Sri Gouri Priya Reddy, Ananathika Sanilkumar, Gopika Udayan and Vishnu Oi and narrated the story of four friends who start their journey at an engineering college in Hyderabad. It received praise for not taking itself seriously while offering a bagful of laughs with its vivacious energy and peppy music. Kalyan Shankar made his directorial debut with the project, which derived its name from its three principal characters — Manoj (Ram Nithin), Ashok (Nithin Narne) and Damodar (Sangeeth Shobhan).

A source close to the development tells us that Kalyan initially wanted to make something else but as the actor who he was interested to work with was occupied with multiple projects for this year, he didn’t want to waste time and instead came back to developing MAD 2, the idea of which had been with him for a long time. “All the stakeholders involved with the project are excited about the material of MAD 2. It’s a proper sequel and will have double the fun. The humour has sat well with the story that Kalyan is keen on telling. All the principal characters from the first part will be returning and so will the technicians like Bheems Ceciroleo (music), Navin Nooli (editor) and Shamdat Sainudeen (cinematographer). In fact, Shamdat is occupied with Naga Chaitanya-starrer Thandel but yet he promised to do MAD 2 as well,” the source confirms.

The source goes on to add that the project will go in front of the cameras in March, and will be predominantly shot in Hyderabad.

-NAGARAJ GOUD