The actor will soon join the sets of 'U Turn' remake.

Samantha Akkineni’s fans are in for a big treat with three of her films slotted for back-to-back releases. Reports coming in from the tinsel town are that Irumbu Thirai, a Tamil film in which she is paired opposite Vishal, is scheduled for release on March 29 and on the same day, the multi-lingual – Mahanati/Nadigayar Thilagam will also be out.
​
The next day, her fans will get to see her in Rangasthalam in which she will be sharing the screen space with the Tollywood star Ram Charan.

Irumbu Thirai features Samantha Ruth Prabhu as the lead heroine, marking her first-time association with Vishal and Action King Arjun is playing the antagonist in the film.

Directed by PS Mithran, the film is produced by Vishal under his banner Vishal Film Factory. Yuvan Shankar Raja has composed music for this venture with George cranking the camera and Ruben editing it.

Mahanati/Nadigayar Thilagam is a biopic on the legendary actor Savitri. Directed by Nag Ashwin, the film has Samantha playing a journo and the film is told from her perspective.

Bankrolled under the banner Vyjayanthi Movies it has Mickey J Meyer composing music with cinematographer Dani Sanchez-Lopez cranking the camera. 

In Rangasthalam, she is paired opposite Ram Charan Teja for the first time in her career. The film is directed by Sukumar and produced by Naveen Yerneni, Y Ravi Shankar and Mohan Cherukuri under the banner Mythri Movie Makers. Devi Sri Prasad has composed music for this flick with R Rathnavelu wielding the camera and Navin Nooli editing.

With three of her films gearing up for release, Samantha is ready to join the sets of the U Turn remake. This Kannada movie will be made in Tamil and Telugu and Pawan Kumar, who had directed the original, will be wielding the megaphone for it.

​Tollywood star Mahesh Babu was overwhelmed when he received recently a letter from a young fan living in the United States. He was so happy that he even shared a picture of the letter on his Instagram account.

Gone are the days, when fans used to write letters to their favourite celebrities. With the advent of social media, it is easy for fans to let their favourite stars know how much they admire them and even receive a quick response. But, nothing can beat the charm of a letter. If you think the celebrities don’t miss receiving letters from fans, think again.

Tollywood star Mahesh Babu was overwhelmed when he received recently a letter from a young fan living in the United States. He was so happy that he even shared a picture of the letter on his Instagram account along with an adorable response.

In her letter, she has detailed that her school allowed the students to write a letter to their favourite celebrity and she decided to send one to Mahesh. The young fan said that she has watched all of his movies and he inspired her. She also said her favourite film was Srimanthudu, while requesting Mahesh to write back to her

​“Dearest Neha, In a world of internet and mails, was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter sent to me by post. Makes me very happy to know you enjoy my movies. Sitara and gautam also liked Srimanthudu as much as you did. Happy to be your inspiration and will try to do movies which you will like :) It was an absolute pleasure reading your letter and I wish you all the best for your schooling.
Lots of love, God bless. :)
Mahesh Babu.
​
You will receive a reply in ur postbox as well,” read Mahesh’s response to his 6th-grade fan, who wrote a letter as part of her school assignment.
​
Mahesh is currently busy shooting for his film Bharath Ane Nenu, which is helmed by Koratala Siva, the director who made the fan’s favourite film Srimanthudu in 2015.

​Successful hero Sharwanand has publicly confessed about how bad he had felt for rejecting 'Arjun Reddy' when the director first approached him. Having witnessed how bold the heroine's character in the film was, we can easily presume several actresses might have turned it down too. Here is one such actress who now rues for rejecting the film as she was hesitant about doing the several lip-locks in the film.

​South actress Parvatii Nair, who has predominantly acted in Tamil and Malayalam films, has in a recent interview revealed that she was approached for "Arjun Reddy". Talking about the missed opportunity, the 'Uttama Villain' actress said that she had rejected Arjun Reddy because of the intimate scenes and lip-locks. 

She added that it seemed a simple and very ordinary love story when Sandeep had narrated to her, and so feeling unsure of a debut director's vision and also doing the intimate scenes, she turned down the role which made debutante Shalini Pandey an overnight star. 

"But, when I saw the film in a theatre, I felt so bad and unfortunate for missing it. One must give full credit to director Sandeep for converting a simple love story into a genuinely impactful film. The presentation was so well that I just fell in love with the film," Parvatii reportedly revealed.

Besides 'Arjun Reddy', Parvatii also rejected 'Aruvi', which was the finest Tamil film of 2017. 

In the video shot last  year, he is seen requesting people not to drive under the influence of alcohol because ‘life is precious’.

A day after popular Television anchor Pradeep Machiraju was booked by the Hyderabad police for driving his car under the influence of alcohol on New Year's Eve, an old video has returned to embarrass him.
​
The short video-clip being circulated on social networking sites, was reportedly recorded earlier this year, and requested adults not to let minors drive, while also requesting those above the legal age, not to drink and drive.  

"To all the adults, I request everyone to not drink and drive because it leads to accidents which may end your life and someone else's as well. Your life is very precious. So please don't drink and drive, wear seat belt, wear helmet and follow the traffic rules. All these are meant for our safety and lets all follow them," Pradeep is seen saying in the video.

Many social media users who are sharing the video, are pointing out the irony, that Pradeep himself got caught driving drunk.

Watch the video below.

Pradeep was caught by the police when they undertook a special drive to prevent drunken driving on New Year’s Eve. 
​
His blood test showed he had 178 mg/ml, compared to the permissible limit of 30 mg/ml.

"Since this is the first time Pradeep has been booked for drunk driving he will be let off after undergoing a counselling session and paying a fine. He might be needed to appear before the court if summoned," a police officer told ToI.

Pradeep began his career as a Radio Jockey for Radio Mirchi before gaining fame with Konchem Touchlo Unte Chepta, a popular celebrity talk show on Zee Telugu. 

As part of the drive, the Hyderabad Police booked a record 2,499 people for drunken driving on New Year’s Eve.

Out of the total 2,499 cases booked, 1,683 cases were registered by the Hyderabad Traffic Police, followed by 582 cases in Cyberabad. With 234 cases, Rachakonda saw the least number of violations.

There have been widespread speculations that 'Agnyaathavaasi' may be a remake of the French film 'Largo Finch'.

Even as fans are waiting eagerly for the release of the Pawan Kalyan starrer Agnyaathavaasi on January 10 as a Sankranti release, the film has reportedly been caught in a copyright row.
​
There have been widespread speculations that Agnyaathavaasi may be a remake of the French film Largo Finch.

T-Series owns the remake rights of this French film and with reports that Agnyaathavaasi may be a remake, they have served a legal notice to the producers seeking clarification. Incidentally, Largo Finch is based on the comic book of the same name and the French movie was based on it.

Sources close to T-Series confirmed that the legal notice has been served to the producers of Agnyaathavaasi and they are awaiting a clarification just to make sure that there is no copyright violation.

Largo Finch is all about a billionaire’s adopted son trying to find out his father’s murderers and also prove that he is the legitimate heir. With Agnyaathavaasi coming with the tagline “Prince in Exile” it has created doubts in the minds of the movie buffs that it could be inspired by Largo Finch.

Directed by Trivikram Srinivas, the film has Pawan Kalyan and Keerthy Suresh playing the lead pair with Adhi Pinisetty, Boman Irani, Anu Emmanuel, Kushboo and others playing pivotal roles.

The film is produced by S Radha Krishna under his banner Haarika & Hassine Creations. Anirudh Ravichander will be making his debut as music composer in the Telugu film industry while V Manikandan has cranked the camera and Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao has edited it.

The film also features Boman Irani, Keerthy Suresh, Anu Emmanuel, Aadhi, Khushboo, Murali Sharma and Rao Ramesh, apart from Pawan Kalyan. The film has Venkatesh Daggubati and Anirudh Ravichander making a cameo appearance as well.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the makers of the film have arranged a special screening for Megastar Chiranjeevi and his family. Both Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan will watch the film together in Hyderabad two days before its release.

With the film caught in a copyright row, the producers hope to sort it out right before its release on January 10.

2017 was a glorious year for Telugu cinema with many hits, new stars on the block, and celebrities who made news for all the right and wrong reasons.

2017 couldn’t have been a better year for Telugu cinema with films like Baahubali 2 and Khaidi No 150 setting the cash registers ringing.

From SS Rajamouli’s epic drama to Sekhar Kammula’s pleasantly surprising Fidaa, it was a year which had something for everyone.

Here are 10 things that hogged the limelight this year in the Telugu film industry.

Team Baahubali 2 SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus

Baahubali 2 was the biggest film to have emerged from Tollywood in 2017. It broke the myth that there can’t be a pan-Indian film in contemporary Indian cinema.

From Punjab to Kerala, the film received a unanimous thumbs up from the critics and audiences alike. But more than that, the success turned SS Rajamouli into a national treasure and for once, a Telugu film soared high on a national scale.

The film, starring Prabhas, Anushka, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah, Ramya Krishna and Sathyaraj, was hailed for its storytelling, visual effects, production design, music. No wonder, it went on to amass a jaw-dropping Rs 1600 crores and more at the box-office.

In Hindi alone, the film crossed Rs 500 crores (nett), a first for any film in Bollywood so far.

Chiranjeevi returns to the arena; Rajasekhar defies all odds

Megastar Chiranjeevi returned to the silver screen for his first full-fledged role in more than nine years with Khaidi No 150. Directed by VV Vinayak, the film was a remake of Kaththi; however, it was the sight of Chiranjeevi dancing to the tunes of ‘Ammadu Let’s Do Kummudu’ which turned into euphoria across cinema halls in January this year.

The film also proved that Chiranjeevi’s mojo hasn’t diminished at all despite the long hiatus from films. On the other hand, 2017 was also a special year for actor Rajasekhar who scored his first hit in more than 15 years or so, thanks to Praveen Sattaru’s PSV Garuda Vega. The film’s success was the answer to all the critics and naysayers who questioned Praveen Sattaru about why he was working with Rajasekhar in first place.

The drug scandal

Tollywood faced the heat from a special investigation team (SIT), which questioned several high-profile celebrities including Ravi Teja, Puri Jagannadh, Navdeep, Mumaith Khan, Subba Raju to name a few.

The events leading up to this interrogation were dramatic to say the least. Soon after news broke out that hundreds of teenagers in some of the most renowned schools of Hyderabad had become victims of drug abuse, a drug dealer is also said to have named several celebrities from the Telugu film industry as his clients.
​
Days after questioning all these celebs, the SIT didn’t arrest anyone. But it did send a strong signal that drug abuse is a criminal offence.

Balakrishna pulls off a big surprise

His 100th film Gautamiputra Satakarni got everyone talking about the actor’s ability to pull off a historical drama and it went on to become the biggest hit in Balakrishna’s career. But that’s hardly the most surprising news that we heard about the actor in 2017.

In November, when the AP state government announced its Nandi awards for 2014, 2015 and 2016, it came as a huge shock to everyone that Balakrishna was chosen as the Best Actor for his film Legend. Incidentally, the film also won the Nandi Award for Best Feature Film in a year when other films like Manam and Race Gurram too were in contention. Let’s just say, we were as surprised as you are.

Pawan Kalyan’s political run begins

After nearly three years, Pawan Kalyan finally became quite active in the political scenario. Right from meeting students to understand their aspirations to addressing an august gathering at Harvard, 2017 was a busy year for Pawan Kalyan.

The actor-and-politician also outlined the principles of his political party ‘Jana Sena’ and he began an unique recruitment drive, where aspirants were required to clear a written exam to become a member of the party. That’s not all. Pawan Kalyan was quite forthright about his political views, even if it meant standing up to TDP and BJP’s policies at the state and the central level.

Dil Raju’s double hattrick

Dil Raju, one of Telugu cinema’s biggest producers, is on cloud nine and quite rightfully so. He created a sensation by scoring six hits back-to-back in 2017 alone, a unique record in recent times.

No other producer has had such a glorious run in a single year. Period. Starting from Sharwanand’s Shatamanam Bhavati, Dil Raju tasted success with Nenu Local, Duvvada Jagannadham, Fidaa, Raja The Great, and finally MCA. The producer even celebrated the success of this defining moment in his career by inviting all the actors and directors, who worked with him in 2017, and felicitated each one of them at a grand ceremony.

Spyder’s debacle

When Spyder was first announced, with Mahesh Babu playing the lead role, the general consensus was that it just couldn’t go wrong. After all, it was being directed by AR Murugadoss, who had films like Thuppaki and Kaththi to his credit in recent times. The film was produced with a budget of more than Rs 100 crores and it was billed as one of the most expensive south Indian films at the time of its release.

However, the result came as a rude shock to everyone who was betting big on the film. The story, which was based on an intelligence officer’s race against time to stop a psycho from wrecking havoc in a city, didn’t resonate with the masses and it was one of the biggest flops of the year at the box-office.

Chai-Sam wedding

It was a fairytale wedding that was made of the stuff of dreams. That Naga Chaitanya and Samantha were going to get married in 2017 was on everyone’s mind, and the wedding itself lived up to the buzz surrounding the grand ceremony.

Prior to his son’s wedding, Nagarjuna had told the media that it’s going to be a private affair with only close friends and family members attending the event. The wedding took place in Goa, and later, the family threw a grand reception in Chennai and Hyderabad.
If we had to pick one moment which made everyone smile, it was the sight of Naga Chaitanya and Samantha saying ‘I Do’ at the wedding ceremony.


A new ray of hope

For the longest time, Telugu film industry had come under the scanner for not offering strong characters to women actors. However, 2017 had a different story to tell. In Sai Pallavi, Anushka, Shalini Pandey, Nivetha Thomas, Nivetha Pethuraj, Eesha, and Rakul Preet, the industry found a new ray of hope.

While Anushka turned her role (Devasena) in Baahubali 2 into a warrior queen who commanded respect and admiration in equal measure, Sai Pallavi made us fall in love with her onscreen persona in Fidaa. And then, there were others like Nivetha Thomas and Nivetha Pethuraj who delivered strong performances in Ninnu Kori and Mental Madhilo respectively.

Rakul Preet too made her mark with her role in Rarandoi Veduka Choodham.

A new star is born

If one had to pick the Best Actor in 2017, it all narrows down to two choices - Prabhas (Baahubali 2) and Vijay Devarakonda (Arjun Reddy). Baahubali 2 was testimony to Prabhas’ unrelenting faith in SS Rajamouli and his portrayal of the lead character, Amarendra Baahubali was his best yet.

And then, the Telugu film industry found a new star in Vijay Devarakonda who stunned everyone in Arjun Reddy. The sight of a man who broke every rule that defines what a Telugu film hero can do on screen is hard to forget after watching Vijay hogging the limelight in Arjun Reddy. Clearly, the contest will go down the wire between the two.

Atlee is presently working on the script of the film

If reports doing the rounds in Tollywood are to be believed, Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi may be roped in to play the villain in Ram Charan Teja’s upcoming film that will be helmed by director Boyapati Srinu.

The ace director, well known for etching out the best villain characters in his films, has one such role to offer for Vivek and now the ball is in the actor’s court. It needs to be seen if he would accept the offer or not.

It may be mentioned here that Vivek Oberoi was first approached by director VV Vinayak to play the baddie in Chiranjeevi’s comeback film Khaidi No 150 but he turned it down citing date issues. The star then went on to share the screen space with Ajith in Vivegam.
​
Vivek Oberoi’s first Telugu film was the Ram Gopal Varma directorial Raktha Charithra, which was release in 2010. He also played an important role in its sequel. He was last seen playing the baddie in the Telugu version of Vivegam.

Boyapati Srinu is currently busy with the groundwork of his Ram Charan project and is assembling his star cast. Reports suggest that Ramya Krishnan has bagged a prominent role in the film. It is worth noting here that she had shared the screen space with Ram Charan’s dad Chiranjeevi in several movies earlier but this is the first time she will be seen in the young star’s movie.

Anu Emmanuel has been roped in to play the female lead opposite Ram Charan in this untitled film. Reports also add that the project would go on to the floors later next year.
Ram Charan is currently busy with the Sukumar directorial Rangasthalam and this film will hit the silver screens in March next year.

The film will release on January 10, during Sankranti.

​The much-awaited teaser of Power star Pawan Kalyan’s Agnyaathavaasi was released on Saturday. The action-packed trailer reminds us of the previous outing of Pawan-Trivikram combination Attarintiki Daredi in which Pawan was a wealthy businessman, on a mission to reunite his family.

Meanwhile, Gaali Veluga, the second song from the Pawan Kalyan film was released earlier this week. A music video of the song was released by Anirudh, who dubbed the song as a tribute to Pawan Kalyan.

Agnyaathavaasi is Pawan Kalyan’s 25th film, and this is his third combination with Trivikram, who earlier directed Jalsa and Attarintiki Daredi, both blockbusters.

Music for the film is by Anirudh Ravichander, who is making his debut in Tollywood. The first single Bayatiki Vachi Chuste has already become a huge hit.
​
The film is being produced by S Radha Krishna under the banner Haarika & Haasine Creations. For the first time, Keerthy Suresh has been paired with Pawan Kalyan. Anu Emmanuel is also playing an important role in the film.

The cast also includes Khushboo, Boman Irani, Rao Ramesh and others.

According to reports, the theatrical rights of the film have been sold out for a record price.
The makers announced that the film will have a massive release across the USA. Agnyaathavaasi will have the biggest ever release in USA in 209 Cinemark locations which is the highest for an Indian film.

Recently the title of the film was announced and the first look poster was launched, which fans dubbed a perfect blend of class and mass, calling it a unique trait of both Pawan Kalyan and director Trivikram Srinivas.

The film is stated to release on Sankranti.  

APPARENTLY, NAYANTHARA IS BEING CONSIDERED BECAUSE OF HER STAR POWER AND HER SUCCESS IN AUTHOR-BACKED ROLE

Last year's critically-acclaimed Kannada indie hit U-Turn, which featured Shraddha Srinath in the titular role, is all set to be remade in Tamil and the project might feature Samantha Akkineni or Nayanthara in the lead. While it was long announced that Samantha will play the leading lady in the film's Tamil and Telugu remakes, latest reports hint that she has been replaced by Nayanthara. The reason for Samantha's exit from the project is yet unknown but the makers are yet to make an official announcement.
​
The yet-untitled project is expected to roll from early next year. U-Turn, directed by Lucia fame Pawan Kumar, revolves around the mystery behind the death of motorists who die tragic deaths after breaking traffic rules on a particular flyover in Bengaluru. 

In January last year, Samantha watched the film in a special screening in Bengaluru and immediately gave her nod. It was believed that she was willing to produce the remake. However, ever since the announcement, there's been no development with regards to the project.

A few months later, rumours made the rounds that Nithya Menen was brought on board in place of Samantha and the project was supposed to go on the floors last year. The latest update is that Nayanthara might come on board to play the lead role after Samantha reportedly chose to exit the film for reasons yet unknown. Apparently, Nayanthara is being considered because of her star power and her success in author-backed roles and woman-centric projects. 

Over the weekend, reports emerged that the remake will officially go on the floors from January 2018. Speaking to New Indian Express, director Pawan Kumar, who will helm the remake as well, shed more light on the development: "The film is in the pre-production stage and shooting will commence from January. We’re trying to make it a bigger film now that we have Samantha in the lead," he said.

It'll be a busy 2018 for Samantha whose first major release will be Vishal's Irumbu Thirai. She also has the Savitri biopic, Mahanati, apart from Vijay Sethupathi's Super Deluxe and Sivakarthikeyan's yet-untitled Tamil project with Ponram.