The Week That Was

Sinu & Saumesh

Matter of Heart and Heartless

This week Bollywood saw two releases. One, insane girl meets sane boy in the Dharma Productions Hasee Toh Phasee. Odd couple inviting trouble, batty Parineeti Chopra Vs loser Siddharth Malhotra. There are moments of brilliance in the proceeding and sometimes the narrative is whittled away. Be that as it may, save your admiration for the performances, especially Parineeti Chopra.

Shekhar Suman's Heartless deals with the subject of anesthesia awareness. Plot of a botched up heart surgery is at the heart of the matter. An attempt by Sekhar Suman to resuscitate Adhyayan Suman's career in Bollywood.  

Mani and Mummy Return

So it is more or less confirmed – Mani Ratnam's next will be a movie starring Telugu superstars Mahesh Babu and Nagarjuna, the first time the two actors would be coming together. The movie will be the comeback vehicle for Aiswarya Rai Bachchan after her pregnancy. It is reported that Sruthi Haasan is also cast in the movie. Not much about the movie is made public still. The movie would be released in Tamil and Telugu. Mani Ratnam's earlier outing Raavan/Raavanan could not create much of a ripple. The fact that Ms.Rai Bachchan is making a comeback is what makes the project important to the media. Lets hope that our own desi master has something new to offer and is not just fulfilling the duties as a Bachchan 'family director'.

Happily Engaged

The hot and happening couple of Malayalam Film Industry, Fahadh Fassil and Nazriya Nazeem got engaged today at a private function in Trivandrum. The marriage is fixed for August 21. The couple met the press and commented on the two questions that has been doing the rounds since the news of their affair became public – 1) will Nazriya continue to act in movies post-marriage? 2) isn't the age gap between them a cause for concern (for whom, we don't know)? Nazriya replied that she would continue acting after the marriage, but added the interesting caveat that 'family is the priority' (ahem!). For the second question, the answer was given by Fahadh who dismissed the possibility of any marital discord arising out of the age gap. Is there anybody else who feels that each answered to the question meant for the other?

No.1 Star of Tollywood

Who is the No. 1 Star of Tollywood?

Star-Wars for the top spot is not a new thing in Tollywood. But with many successful stars and movies, the question of who is number one cannot be easily judged. Below are the names of the four stars whom we think is in the race to be number one of Tollywood and why. Leave a comment telling us your opinion.

Pawan Kalyan: The highest grossers of the last two years belonged to Pawan Kalyan – Attarintiki Daaredi in 2013 and Gabbar Singh in 2012. Pawan Kalyan is one hero who has been going strong for the last two years without giving a flop. He is also known for selecting his projects carefully after the box offices bombs like Panjaa and Teenmar. Kalyan reportedly takes home a sum of 16 crore rupees, which is only matched by Mahesh Babu in Tollywood. An undoubted contender for the top spot.

Mahesh Babu: Eventhough his latest release, 1-Nenokkadine, did not become the hit it was supposed to become, Mahesh Babu is still at the top spot for many reasons. His movie earlier last year, Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu was a superhit, so was Businessman and Dhookudu. Mahesh Babu is building his base among the families, while keeping his youth fanbase happy with occasional action flicks he was once famous for. His next movie, Aagadu has already created enough hype. Mahesh Babu has been at the top for a long time and looks like he is in no mood to leave it to anyone.

NTR Jr: The success of NTR Jr lies in being in the limelight, attracting huge fan responses, for many years now. The youngest among the contenders for the top spot, NTR Jr definitely has time on his side. The youthfulness and energy that NTR Jr brings to screen is unparalleled in Tollywood. Badshah which came out last year was a hit in terms of the box office collections, but the huge budget acted against it being termed a blockbuster. His next, Rabasa, directed by Santosh Srinivas, rides on high expectations. NTR Jr is a top contender to be the number one star of Tollywood.

Prabhas: Prabhas is in the news for a role that not many actors get to play. His upcoming movie, Baahubali, is the most talked about project in Tollywood, with SS Rajamouli directing it. Prabhas has been working hard on his looks, physique and skills, which is closely guarded for the media and public. The kind of dedication that Prabhas brings to a project is worthy of admiration. Prabhas has been on the rise to the top spot ever since his first movie and in many ways deserves it.

Sukumar, Jr. NTR project in April

Why Jr. NTR signed Sukumar’s next?

M K Sinu 

1: Nenokkadine – was a case of expectations mismatch with actual outcome. This psychological thriller had rave reviews for the actor Mahesh and rants to the director. Everyone in the tinsel town is as good as their last release. Accepted fact. The film had a compelling narrative but found few takers. Director Sukumar's stocks plummeted soon after the release. Notwithstanding this, his joining hands with Jr.NTR for an action entertainer made news.

{Everyone in the tinsel town is as good as their last release}

With the success of Attarintiki Daredi B.V.S.S Prasad sensed that Sukumar’s failure is not fatal and Jr. NTR bad run at the BO is not permanent. So, his gambit - to produce the Sukumar directed Jr. NTR starrer potboiler, set to go on floor in April. 

Coming to think of it, for this outing, Sukumar would have stopped thinking with his heart. 

The Week That Was

Sinu & Saumesh

Retirement Benefits  

Ever since Uday Chopra announced his retirement plans after Dhoom 3. He made more news than the promotion of the film itself. The twitterati went on an overdrive with funny comments around it. Good decision, if not for him, we need a break from his movies. This week he made news with his itsy-bitsy post on twitter with Nargis Fakhri. Don’t ask who?

Box office war – Reloaded

It's Deja Vu time in Tollywood, or sort of. The upcoming box office clash between Mahesh Babu's 1-Nenokkadine and Ramcharan Teja's Yevadu reminds one of the similar clash between the stars' movies, Seethama Vakilto Sirimalle Chettu and Naayak last Sankranti season. Both the movies did well commercially last year. It has to be seen what will be the fate of the releases this season. Will the sense of deja vu not run the full course with any movie failing to make it big?

Finally marriage knocks at John’s door

Whether pre-planned or not, John Abraham’s marriage to Priya Runchal investment banker and financial analyst made news this week. It took some time for John to be open about his relationship after his break-up with Bipasha Basu. After a decade of acting John Abraham is the flavour of season, not because he has done path breaking work in acting, but as an outsider he produced path breaking movies. J.A. Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. next Hindi film is titled ‘Banana’ after critical acclaimed Vicky Donor & Madras Café.

                                POV

Drishyam starring Mohanlal and directed by Jeethu Joseph has emerged as the clear winner among Christmas releases and is also touted to become the highest grosser of the year. Stars from other languages including Vijay and Vikram has seen the movie and is reportedly bowled over by it. A Tamil remake with Vikram as the lead is planned and Mohanlal's brother-in-law, Suresh Balaji, has bought the rights for the movie already. The buzz is that Jeethu will return as the director for the Tamil version and he also might helm a Hindi remake if at all it gets made. Aging stars in Hindi think of it, you’ve a hit in hand.

Clash of the Titans

With two major movies planned for Pongal, Jilla and Veeram, the former starring Vijay and the latter Ajith, Tamil movie goers and theatre owners are facing tough choices. But from the look of the movie promotions online, Jilla is definitely the front runner with its 14 seconds trailer getting more than a million views in few days while Veeram lags far behind with less than one lakh views on its official site.

Blair Witch comes to Sandalwood

The found footage genre Kannada movie "6 - 5 = 2" written and directed by newcomer KS Ashoka, made news for more reasons than one. This horror flick revolves around a fatal trek accident, in which three people die and two trekkers disappear. Only one trekker manages to return home. Produced at a shoestring budget of ₹20 lakh, this movie collected ₹2 crore at the Box Office in four weeks. Other language remakes, anyone?

   

A movie of many firsts – 1 Nenokkadine

A movie of many firsts – 1 Nenokkadine 

M K Sinu

Marketing of a film is the last thing on the minds of most Tollywood producers. While Bollywood has been making strides with innovative marketing strategies, Tollywood producers believe this function of product placement never existed, barring a few. Mahesh Babu’s 1- Nenokkadine is wiping the slate clean this time around in positioning and marketing the film. That is only one of the many firsts for the film which are listed below.

One - This is the first time a Production and Distribution Company from Mumbai (EROS Intl) is entering Tollywood to distribute the film worldwide, and that too at a whopping price. Two, the music launch function will be live streamed on several theatres across Andhra Pradesh. Three, an App to update wallpapers, news updates and song downloads is being prepared. Four, Devi Sri Prasad and Mahesh Babu are coming together for the first time for a movie. Five, Gautham – Mahesh’s son debuts in the film as child artiste. Six, a ‘1’-student contest for the first time ever across Andhra Pradesh targeting schools is planned, too. Guess next time round, Bollywood will take a leaf or two out of mana Telugu movie 1-Nenookadine for marketing ideas.

For those who came in late, 1-Nenookadine is a stylish action-thriller directed by Sukumar. Kriti Sanon plays the female lead and the cast include Nasser, Anu Haasan, Sayaji Shinde, Pradeep Rawat, Kelly Dorji and Posani Krishna Murali.