An audition took place in Thinksmart and Meera Chopra has been selected as the other heroine in Janda Pai Kapiraju.

I didn’t have to wait for a long time on the platform. This was my first trip on MMTS…I caught the 12.35 ka last local. Project pani meedha had to go to my branch office at Chandanagar and wow what a cool ride it was. No jostling, comfy and you can even catch your forty winks and the ticket is so reasonable. You must try this and you will feel so proud to be a hyderabadi. I saw a ticketless traveller and when the TC was pulling her up for the offence a fellow traveller offered to pay for her. Lovely people really! 

A positive talk for a film and if it flops…it is dissapointing but a negative talk and if the film is a hit…it’s a lovely surprise. Jalsa releases with a lot of baggage and expectations in a few days. Helping the negative talk spread is another person.Today a theatre manager was heard telling a distributor…the film had taken two years to complete and in the last ten days they were still clueless about what kind of climax they should give it. Etlanti finishing touch iyyalani kindha meedha paddaru. He went on to compare it with Jagadam which had taken more or less the same time to hit the screen. But why talk of climax or ten days, there are stars who don’t even listen to the story and blindly trust the directors.

Directed by Ravi C Kumar, Shashank and Nitin starrer is almost ready, could hit the screen in the first week of may. A press conference is being planned shortly to release the logo and announce it’s title. Mamta and Sindu are the leading ladies. Sources say that ‘Victory’ could be the title that’s under consideration. All the best to the team. 

The music programmes, the song and dance competitions on TV is getting very dramatic. Don’t know if they put glycerine in their eyes but every loser begins to weep and sometimes howl too! The camera then comes close and shows their expressions change and the audience too begins to empathise and weep with them. I saw this in a hindi channel and now almost every telugu channel is copying it. Today a lady’s eyes became beetroot red even while she was singing. The judges Amma Rajashekar or some esteemed personality says something to boost their spirits and the singers/dancers stand with reverence as if God has appeared before them. The next most bugging programme is the walk the talk. After the NDTV started showing interviews with personalities while walking in the promenade, every telugu channel has taken to the concept religiously. It’s so irritating sometimes that one feels like saying don’t move so much, just sit and do the talking. Why can’t all the above programmes be normal? Why is that if one walks while talking, the other too wants to do the same? 

Heard in the high court: Today’s news in Sakshi is tomorrow’s GO.

Vanisri: Many film personalities are surrounded by psycophants but Shoban Babu never encouraged them, he even chose friends. In the beginning my interaction with him was less and he would speak at length to my mother, address her as pedamma, tell her that he had brought a new home, that he was planning to buy one more , that he purchased jewellery for his wife etc etc and I would know more about him through her, their frequency matched. 

When we were shooting and it would rain he would talk about the world from the newspapers and books, I would give him a patient listening but I understood what he said only later, I was not well read when I joined the industry. Once I got married and had two children he started addressing me as Vanisrigaru.He would drive his own car, never would visit temples or pray to gods but you’d see a huge idol of Buddha at his home. I can find 50% of Jiddu Krishnamurthy’s qualities in him.

I would call him ‘ban babu’.  There were many musical hits with ANR and Shoban Babu. Enki Naidubava, Jeevana Jyoti. Sinni O sinni became very famous, so did endukante emi cheppanu…He would have only one idli for breakfast and a glass of juiceor coconut water. Would eat non veg only when he had guests at home or when someone forced him to. He never got the cinema habits while still working in a cinema industry (like smoking, playing cards, cracking adult jokes etc. ).

Never used anything that came free on the sets or outside. There are many people in the industry who did their BAs and MAs but would use profane language but this man stayed away from them. He once told me that he liked the line …. teeraina sampada ye chutunundi from muthyamantha pasupu mukhamantha chaya. He appreciated Bapu’s work so much and explained the meaning of the line..that some people have a lot of money but there is no labham or nastam from it. We should have homes that should look welcome.

He hated working in summers and said that he would work as long as he ensured four lakhs per month of income for his four children and retire…evaru padtharu ee endallo ee baadha, how does your daughter work so many shifts without getting tired Pedamma he would ask my mother.
Once all of us were chatting and I asked him why people called him a pisinigottu. He showed me the list of people to whom he sends money. One man tells me that he requested Shoban Babu to construct a kalyana mantapam in the village and within two months it was ready with the cooking vessels and all. He even gave scholarships for his sister’s relatives.

I realized that he was getting lonely in his last few days. Oka joke chepte navvadaniki evaru leru, he has distanced himself from his friends and he felt very lonely. He called me once to tell that he had read an article abt me praising him.

Sharp features,  misty-eyed looks, firm voice and strands of hair that twirled on his forehead made Shoban Babu a favourite with the ladies. A rare personality who set principles, standards for himself and controlled it till he breathed his last, he set an example for everyone around him. His co-stars Sharada, Vanisri and Radhika who’ve worked in innumerable films share some aspects of the actor’s personality.

Sharada ‘s first film with the actor was Manushulu Marali and the last Evandi Aavidotchindi. Her phones have been constantly ringing for the past few days and people have been calling and offering condolences. She adds, “I didn’understand why they were calling me, speaking in a slow soft tone.. as if I am his life partner. Later my folks told me that the roles we played were so intense, the chemistry was so believable and they might have empathized with me.

I haven’t been in touch with him for a decade and he was always very professional on the sets. He lived like a king and left like a king. His daughter wasn’t conceiving and it did bother the family, but now after 20 years she is expecting a baby. So even that dream has been fulfilled. Aasalu untaayi andariki avi teeredhi kondhariki…that holds good for him.

Shoban Babu often felt restless in the company of complicated people. When he had time on the sets, he would either keep to himself, read or pull out his accounts book from his brief case and work on them. He would drive his own car, never would visit temples but had an idol of Buddha at home . He also chose his friends carefully and KV Chalam and Chandramohan were perhaps the only film personalities with whom he shared a healthy relationship. He would speak to a co-star for hours but you could never call the person as Shoban Babu’s friend.

Vanisri recollects her association, “he was most comfy amidst bricks and cement and loved it’s smell and today he’s built a soild foundation for his family, workers and beneficiaries. His daughter told me that he has ensured that all of them would get around five lakhs every month. Even when he was working he would tell my mother that the day he’d make his children’s life secure, he would quit the industry.”

The actor was a light eater and always paid attention to his health, would shun production food and eat non veg only on certain occasions like when he had guests at home or when he felt like eating.  He often believed that the body should be worshipped …feet should be warm (to be active) and head should be cool (to avoid temper) and the tummy half empty (to be active). His discipline extended to his relationships as well.

Vanisri says “he would advise me to write short notes on a paper before calling someone on the phone. Choosing words carefully, thinking before speaking has been a habit with him. I would often find him carrying a dictionary on the sets. He was a voracious reader and would speak good English.”

Radhika doesn’t have the heart to delete his name from her cell phone. Every night it had beome a ritual for Shoban Babu to watch Radhika’s serial Arasi. He was impressed with the way she handled her business and often complimented her. She says, “I wanted him to act in a remake of a tamil film and he refused. I respect his decision. A week before he left, I had spoken to him as a shooting was due near his house. I told him I would come but couldn’t make it that day as I had a small accident . I really miss him.”

I asked him once why people called him a pisinigottu(miser) and he immediately fished out a book which had accounts of number of scholarships he gave to poor students, the list of people to whom he sends money every month. There are many families who depend on him.” Says Vanisri. Industry journalists quip that Shoban Babu never clamoured for publicity, avoided scribes and asked for questionnaires when pressed for interviews and also worked without remuneration sometimes.

He never took anything that came free and never owed anyone a single penny.  All the above actresses had one common thing to say..that the actor did miss having friends in the past few years, none to share jokes or exchange views. Maybe true but his was a life that no one envied or had complaints, a life well planned and lived to the fullest…

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2008/03/28/stories/2008032850840400.htm

@gossipking: I have mentioned that I wudn’t be writing abt it, but will just mention a couple of points that I hope will not slur his image. Plz don’t treat it as gossip. 

Jayalalita was a very fair, beautiful woman. One can’t deny a relationship between them but it was basically a marriage of two minds. Both were voracious readers and both had many things in common intellectually. He was one of the very few people in the industry who spoke in english..good english and the actress definitely enjoyed conversing in that language and looked forward to his company.

Every human has a weakness and the greatness about this man is that he rectified it immediately. There are many actors who have converted the ‘wrong’ into a ‘right’ but like I said he could distinguish what was wrong and what was right and was quick enough to restore dignity to his relationship (to his family).

That Jayalalita had a daughter etc is pure lies says an actress that it is a figment of people’s imagination but that remains questionable. Both the people have put their weaknesses behind, gone ahead and made something out of their lives, set an example for us to follow. While the actor is a great businessman, the lady has become a chief minister of tamil nadu.

I sincerely wish we appreciate this part of their lives and think positively abt them. I do have Shoban Babu’s version, his opinion on Jayalalita that he had spoken to his ex-colleague but will refrain from breathing a word about it. Will post more interesting things about the actor’s personality tomorrow.

 

The Anushka-Gopichand film being directed by Vasu has commenced work and has been stopped for a few days. Sources say that D Suresh Babu had expressed his doubts over the story and the filmmakers paid heed to it.

Johnny and Andarivadu were sold and you know the result. The talk in the industry is that the producer of Jalsa has decided not to sell it to the distributors but might have a tie up with them and is releasing most of the areas. The immense confidence shows the stuff the film is made up of says sources. While this talk is on, Kranti Reddy of vizag purchased the rights for 2 crores 90 lakhs.