Mallavarapu Suryanarayana popularly known as MS Narayana is a busy man today. His role in Dubai Seenu as ‘Fire Star’ Salman Raju had given him the much-needed attention at a time when he is at the crossroads of his career. On the sets of Neelakanta’s latest film, the 55-year-old comedian talks of his recent release and his foray into direction.

A writer initially, Narayana moved into acting after Raviraja Pinisetty offered him Rukmini followed by a break in EVV Satyanarayana’s Maa Nannaki Pelli. He says, “I used to participate in a lot of dramas when I was in college and it was my neighbour’s suggestion that prompted me to try my hand at acting. Those days comedy used to be understated and subtle but the trend in elevating it has improved the prospects of a comedian in Telugu films. Earlier we were given a four-minute role, now we have six minutes to unleash our creativity. People have realised entertainment need not necessarily be a funny act by a comedian, anybody from a hero, heroine to a villain can make the film entertaining.”

About his character Salman Raju which is bringing the house down the actor says, “Such roles fall on our lap very rarely. Generally when an aged actor who is still in demand is facing the camera, one doesn’t fail to notice his limitations in delivering the required expression or movement. He has some pain in the body, he blames the assistant or the choreographer. If he can’t dance he tells the dance master to compose steps according to his body language, etc., and is constantly under a feeling that he is an evergreen hero, a ‘youth’. Just because the role revolved around a film star it got such attention, if it were about some driver or a mechanic people wouldn’t notice. But the fact is it wasn’t inspired by anyone or it is not an insinuation at our popular stars.”

The four-time Nandi awardee had developed a style of his own like turning his head,  modulating his voice in a particular fashion, reacting to a dialogue very quickly and more. He says, “Very true, insecurity prompts you to opt for the standard route of acting and then you know that’s incorrect and you ultimately set out the hard and long way of developing your own style. The way I turn my head is called the “MS turn” in the industry. I don’t imitate anyone and I have my own natural, unique mannerism that I’ve been following for ages. Very rarely do good roles fall on our lap, it happens once in two months.”

MS Narayana had even tried his hand at direction first but it failed at the box-office. After a hiatus he’s all set to give a fresh look to his son Vikram. He adds, “After Dubai Seenu, I was flooded with offers but I’ve already commited myself to begin this movie in July.” The actor signs off saying the responsibility of a comedian is, “He should not allow stagnation and complacency to set in and must constantly deliver aarogyakaramaina haasyam as long as he continues to serve the film industry.”

Navdeep and Sindhu Tolani set the dance floor on fire on Thursday which is a Ladies Night at Bottles and Chimneys. It was good to see Navdeep back in his exuberant self all over again. While the two made a cosy twosome the photographer was stopped by a gentleman who didn’t want the snaps to be taken.

On the other hand if you are wondering where Venu Madhav is drawing all his energy from on the sets it’s from his basket which has a certain liquid disguised as H2O. He goes to his assistant intermittently, picks up a glass and guzzles it down in a jiffy. This happened at a recent shooting and an actor was heard telling that to a co-star. More on the comedians soon.

From Premikudu to Aparichitudu to the recent Shivaji, all his films budget kept increasing with the success of each film and the range of the star concerned. Shivaji is touted to be the most costliest film in India with the biggest star of South India. Shankar is in a fix right now as after getting used to such magnificient sets and lavish production values, any star he selects for his next film now wouldn’t have one third of the business range that Shivaji has done. So he has to compromise on his making style which he has never done in his career. So to beat Shivaji and it’s making values, he has to make another film with Rajni again.

Murugadoss is busy with the Hindi remake of Ghajini starring Aamir Khan. this film might release in Summer 2008 after which he would be working with Rajnikant in August 2008. The release obviously will be in 2009, and in the usual Rajni style the actor would be maintaining a minimum gap of 2/3 years like he does always.

Yash Raj Films are synonymous with multi-starrers and that too big ones. If sources are to be believed they’ve pulled off a major coup…a multi-starrer and the most expensive film produced in India crossing Shivaji. The film is Dhoom III and it stars hold your breath, Aamir Khan, John Abraham, Hrithik, Abhishek, Bipasha, Ash, Rimi Sen and Esha Deol.

John Abraham plays a thief in Dhoom I, Hrithik plays a thief in Dhoom II and Abhishek a cop in both the films assisted by Uday Chopra. In Dhoom III, Hrithik and John meet and form a strong force which inturn becomes very difficult for Abhishek to manage alone so here comes Aamir Khan (aka Bond style) who’s a specially trained cop in the Scotland Yard Secret Service. (Is Shankar listening? Looks like the high budget flick can be only crossed by another Shankar-Rajni combo).

A veteran ex-director is known to be magnanimous for encouraging assistant directors in making small budget films. Every week when the director comes home there is a get-together of the group of assistant directors. A party follows and the coterie polish off huge quantities of alcohol. The bonhomie, the reverie goes on and when the director excuses himself to get his share of forty winks, the glass-heads continue to guzzle. Next morning the director is all set to board the flight and the band of loyalists are still in a holiday mood.

Ramya is the highest paid Kannada actress. She became famous overnight with Amrutha Dhaare (Amrutha Varsham in Telugu).

Ask her about her experience, working with Amitabh Bachchan she says, “One day he called me and took my hand saying he knew palmistry, and reeled off that I was posessive, had stomach problems and was often misunderstood. When I asked him how he knew, he laughed his famous laugh and said ‘My dear girl, almost everyone has stomach aches, everyone is posessive and everyone is misunderstood at some point or other’.”

Charmme will be shooting for Bapu Ramana’s film from the 3rd of July onwards.

Mahesh Babu chose a quite appearance the other day and gifted the gold coins to the ThumsUp winners. There were just a little above 250 people at Shilpakala Vedika.

Marthand and his over confidence? Not really, he speaks from his heart but the result he puts people off. See what he did, he said Desamuduru would be the biggest flop ever and it turned out to be exactly the opposite. Puri must have thought enough is enough and reportedly said kateef to him. Now Verma is the most talked about editor in Film Nagar circles. He’s doing SDZ.

Dil Raju is planning another film with Bunny. This could be directed by Raju Sundaram. But RS was supposed to do that Jagadam producer’s film, wonder what happened to that! 

Coming to Puri, everyone wants him to direct their film. Suresh Productions want him for RaNa, Nag wants him for Naga Chaitanya (he will be going abroad in July for his acting classes and will not work in films till he writes his final year exams) and Puri is already working on Charan. Big brother is busy with his commitments but boss, oka sari mee tammudi vaipu kooda choodandi!

Rajamouli is buying a 1.2 crore Range Rover, will be imported from America.