Thyagaraya Gana Sabha is a destination for bored, old people who do not know how to kill their time. These people we hear are also patrons of art and culture ante kala poshana chese vaallu. Sometime back the invitee list, the ones who occupy the stage was almost on finger tips. ANR, CiNaRe, Paruchuri brothers and an entertainment programme by BV Pattabhiram, a famous magician. His feats too are legendary. After the laudatory speeches by the above mentioned people which would remind us of batrajulu, the magician would begin tricks. The bacche log of the whole of Secunderabad by now would have known the secrets by heart. “Ee kerchief lo emuntundi?” asks BVP then one from the audience would most disinterstingly say, “Emuntundhi puvvu untundhi.” You would really find a flower inside. After Abracadabra, “Ippudu choodandi, ee kerchief lo emuntundi?” “Poola maala untundhi.” You would by the end of the programme find people dozing off. This programme would go on every month but only the person being honoured would change.

This is one big family tree which is closely knit. Did you ever wonder why Keeravani and Rajamouli are together? Keeravani’s wife and Rajamouli’s wife are sisters. Before that, both Keeravani and Rajamouli are sons of two brothers. There is an extended relationship too. Gunnam Gangaraju’s wife’s brother is Chandrasekhar Yeleti and Chandu is producer Cherry’s brother-in-law. Now even Gunnam is also related to Rajamouli’s wife. He is Rajamouli’s wife Rama’s cousin.

Munna seems to have put on weight after Yogi. The buzz is Prabhas aka Satyanarayana Raju is actually a very distant relative of Krishnam Raju and has converted his faith to Christianity ages back. Jeevitha says don’t be upset if Mumait Khan never picks her phone. Because she works, parties and sleeps late. If you wanna talk to her speak to her mum. That’s sane piece of advice from Jeevitha, she must have learnt all this while making Evadaithe Naakenti.

A sweet little birdie gives out some wowie news. Charan is just not working with Puri Jagannath but he has informally given the nod to Rajamouli’s film which will be the second project. The third film will be directed by VV Vinayak. Why is Rajamouli not doing the first film? Because he is not sure if he’d live upto Chiru’s fan’s expectations but is comfy directing the second or third project. 

Saw the clipping of ANR talking about Madhumasam. He says he is not speaking about the film because Sumanth happens to be his grandson or because it is produced by D. Ramanaidu but because of the values the film projected that reminded him of Premnagar, and also because each character in Madhumasam is so fiercely independent. If that is the case why don’t we see ANR talking about the other ultra clean Telugu films which has some nondescript actor as a hero?

Edida Gopala Rao is a rangasthala natudu, he played Gandhi many a times. Aged around 65, this brother of Edida Nageswara Rao worked as a news reader in AIR and had retired. He undertook many pada yatras during Gandhi Jayanti and even went to Gujarath for some seva programmes. The mahatma look-alike’s photos were taken by Nagababu and Paruchuri brothers recently and Chiranjeevi also remarked to a few scribes that this man will be taken as Gandhi in Shankardad Zindabad. Finally the original Gandhi (Dilip Prabhavalkar) in the Hindi film was roped in crashing the hopes of our Telugu Gandhi. Hota hai, hota hai! An upcoming actor recently bad mouthed another actor to Azharuddin at a gym. Obviously a totally surprised Azhar bhai carried the tale to the person concerned. Dost kiska hai? Loose tongue ante idhenemo.

“Nenu evarni imitate chesina, kopam raakunda na natanani receive chesukunna abhimanulandariki na thanks,” says Siva Reddy. Sudden ga thanks enti anu anukuntunnara? Siva Reddy is being honoured by the Sangam Academy with the title “Fun Star” tomorrow. What doubles his happiness is Chiranjeevi is going to adorn his wrist with a Swarna Kankanam. Siva Reddy has completed 2000 programmes so far. Recently a group of fans approached him while he was shooting and asked him not to imitate Superstar Krishna as they were offended, “Meeru aayana nadakani imitate cheyadam emi bagoledhu.” Siva told them, ‘Ok show me the right way he walks and I will do exactly that.’ The fans agreed that he walks in the same fashion showed by Siva. The comedian has a last word. ‘There is nothing wrong in imitating/mimicking actors as long as I don’t misinterpret them.’

I was watching Jai Chiranjeeva this afternoon and recollected the moments at Seven Acres Studios where I had been to meet Sameera Reddy. This was a scene when Sameera squats with a group of girls and rags Venu Madhav. For half a minute scene the actress took nearly two hours to get it right while Ashwani Dutt’s brother sat helplessly watching the remarkably patient director sweat it out in the sun.

Yamagola we hear is shaping out to be really wonderful. An actor says Mohan Babu had given a splendid performance. Touted to be a complete comedy from his side. One source says Chiru didn’t forget his P’s and Q’s even when the fracas between Mohan Babu and him was on. He sent his son Ramcharan with a bunch of flowers to wish him on getting the Padmashri. The festival of colours is just a few days away but what puts the industry on tenterhooks is the cricket which threatens to keep people away from the theatres.

Remember when Lakshmi was a hit, people made it a habit to invite Venky for all the openings till he got bored of it. Ippudu it’s Rajashekar’s turn. Entha hit aithe maatram Rajashekar, do you have to put us through this agony? We love you we love your film but enough of this. Jeevidha calls us and tells that Lok Satta Jayaprakash Narayan liked the film so much and he’s organising a press meet to share his views and pat the hero. You can never iron a dog’s tail and Rajashekar is late by one hour fifteen minutes.

He drinks no water this time, he has a doubt and asks the politician a brilliant question which sounds like film star koduku film star aithe politician koduku politician endhuku avvakoodadhu? After asking he looks at his wife in askance wondering whether the example he cited was right or not.

Jayaprakash clears his query and says that he liked the dialogue ‘varastavam kante pourasatvam minna.’ Remember this was written by the hero himself with some assistance sought by Paruchuri brothers. Press conference over it’s time to got an audio release of Laila Majnu and guess what, Rajashekar is the chief guest for that function too. One colleague went into a trance after listening to this. After waiting so long, other suggested inka laabham ledhu next function ki Rajashekar ni mana bandi lo teesuku povali. Wait a minute, Mumaith is coming to Hyderabad in a couple of days, so one more meet the press programme from the Evadaithe Naakenti unit.

Ajay is currently the most happening villain in telugu cinema. With his well-toned physique and an underplayed but persuasive personality, the main antagonist in Lakshmi Kalyanam is ripping the screen apart with his high octave action. He’s played the antagonist in Rajamouli’s Vikramarkudu and the recent Desamuduru too, but Teja’s latest release has put him in spotlight.
 
A native of Vijayawada, Ajay joined the Madhu Film Institute in Hyderabad to learn acting. “I am basically a very introvert person but had the burning desire to make it in the movies, so the only option to overcome this shyness was to seek professional help. Yes, the course did help me to a large extent but again there are so many factors that you got to rely on to become successful.”

Ajay narrates an interesting incident. “My college was in Jubilee Hills and I would often watch the many shootings that would take place on the roads. I saw how the film stars were pampered and looked after on the sets and I decided I wanted to be there. So the next thing I did was to give up my engineering and hunt for a role. I worked in Kauravudu which had Naga Babu as the hero but the inane role didn’t help me get any film. So I went around with my portfolios to offices and one day I got to know that some selections for a small role is going on for Kushi, a Pawan Kalyan starrer. I found myself in the film and after that there wasn’t any looking back.”

The phone doesn’t stop ringing and the actor is brimming with happiness. His negative role in Lakshmi Kalyanam is drawing encomiums. He pines for the heroine and is seen taking a tour with ten Rottweilers throughout the film. Ask him the experience of working with the dogs. He says, “These dogs are trained to kill, they are most ferocious and are banned in the US. In the film, I’m their master and they don’t spare me either. Teja managed to pick ten of them from different households, and they were not trained but worked in shifts.”

Ajay says the best compliment he’s got so far was from a lady who came from his village. After seeing Lakshmi Kalyanam she was so upset and offended with his negative role and told him not repeat such roles again. His wife finds his roles on screen terrifying. But on the whole Ajay is a happy man. Ask the soft spoken man if he’s replaced Gopichand, he guffaws. “I’m just doing what’s given to me. It has been a long wait but it has been very sweet.”

Promotional work for Evadaithe.. is still going on, Rajashekar and Jeevitha are enjoying their 15 minutes of fame. Yesterday on the telly Rajashekar said what makes this victory sweet is that positive reaction to the film is almost immediate whereas for the other films it was slow and steady. The actor can’t speak one word of Telugu properly but he reaffirmed his credentials recently saying that the dialogues have been written by him.

In Lakshmi Kalyanam the word is spreading that ‘vocchama ellama’ dialogue is actually an offshoot of Teja’s creativity. But a source reveals it’s the Brothers who have written it.

Coming back to Dr Rajashekar, he kept saying at every press conference that he had gone bankrupt with the film and he wouldn’t know what to do if the film didn’t work out. But what we get to hear is that the actor is safe and secure with a neat 12 crore deposited in IDBI bank that he got by giving away the land near Nandagiri Hills for development (the place where his massive hoarding was put up). What one fails to understand is who these proxy writers, directors and producers are, who keep changing in the last minute.

Art director/producer Chanti Addala announced sometime back that in a couple of months there would be a baari budget cinema with a pedda star. So far there has been no kaburu nor kaakarkaya. In 2006 he said he couldn’t make any film because numerology prakaram edhi kalisiraadhanta. Bharat’s film was launched silently. He is acting in SP Entertainments film and the shooting will begin from March 3rd onwards. Another firm believer like chanti Adala is Sai Kiran. You will have to spell his name with a double SS i.e., Ssaikiran. The actor says ever since he visited Bansilal Jumaani and got his spelling changed things have been going smoothly and he’s been busy since then shooting non-stop. Today, the audio function of Suvarna took place.

It’s named Suvarna because the filmmaker says its a bangaram laanti cinema. Another breaking news. Ssai Kiran is signing a project with Ilayaraja and he will be the hero in the film that will be made in four languages. Named Ajanta, it is a three crore budget film. All the best Ssai.