CALL CENTRE MOVIE STILLS
PRABHAKAR who is generally busy on Small Screen is gonna make an interesting Big Screen appearance for the first time. He is doing a full length role with both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE shades in the movie titled CELL. It is being considered as an Experiment. So, what is so unique about this film? To start with, the film is a SUSPENSE thriller with REVERSE Screenplay writing technique. The movie is being Produced by Tungaturthi Sreelakshmi. And is being Directed by Venkatanarayana, who also provides Dialogues and Screenplay. Recently, the film underwent extensive shoot on state highways in and around Hyderabad, finishing 30 days of shoot. Producer Sreelakshmi said that there would NO STUNTS and NO SONGS. Sameer, Kota Sankar Rao, Chatrapati Sekhar, Bhavani are some of the artistes in the film. John is the cinematographer and Mahi Sridhar is the Music Director. With its first copy ready, Cell gets ready for release in a few weeks.
CHIRUTHA is celebrating 50 Days supposedly in 168 DIRECT CENTERS. Just look at the picture below and decide yourself the REAL STATUS of the movie and its supposed collections of Rs. 25.49 Crores in 50 days.
YES. Pictures do really speak a thousand words. If the above scenario is the condition of the 50 DAYS CELEBRATIONS IN MAIN THEATER SANDHYA 70mm in HYDERABAD, then imagine the plight of the other CLAIMED 168 DIRECT CENTERS. But always remember that this is not something exclusive to CHIRUTHA… Another FLOP ATHIDHI is currently facing the same situation. Even the HIT YAMADONGA is facing the same situation as soon as it crossed 50 days mark.
SO MY DEAR TELUGU AUDIENCE & FANS , when I say that Chirutha, Athidhi or Yamadonga are claiming fake records, I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s sentiment. It is just that I am making a sincere effort to make the audience realize that 50, 100, 150, 175 DAYS RECORDS ARE EXTINCT in Cinema worldwide. There are no such PHONY celebrations in Hollywood or even in Bollywood. If Hollywood is the world leader, Bollywood is India’s leader both Box-Office & Content wise. There is nothing wrong to learn something from others. I hope we will have more REAL HITS.
Audience’s IGNORANCE is Exploitative Film-Maker’s STRENGTH. Prove to them that Telugu Movie Goers are not “BAVILO KAPPALU.”
SEEMA SASTRY is a very crudely made PARODY of SEEMA movies. So, is it all that bad? Hmmm… I have no problem with ridiculing the caste system, no problem with parodies, no problem with vulgarity if demanded… but I have a serious problem with crudely made movies. Ohhh, many of you must be thinking… cut this bullshit and just spill the beans. Well, read on…
IN A NUTSHELLHITSEEMA SASTRY will open to a 60+% OCCUPANCY RATES overall. It will never get over 80%… and I mean ever. But will not fall to 30% either… The movie will give enough laughs to enough people (There are always exceptions) to sustain with an average of 30%-50% for 50 days. And if it does manage to do that… then it would have made enough GROSS collections to give at least 50% NETT PROFITS. In the end, the movie would be a decent enough HIT making it a 2nd SUCCESSFUL FILM of ALLARI NARESH this year after the success of ATTILI SATTIBABU LKG in the first half of the year.
RAILWAY STATIONS and their Departments are being banned from being used for shooting Movies and the like. Railway Ministry released a circular in this regard. Reportedly, all the Railway Divisional offices have received these circulars already.
So, from now on, the producers have to shell out more for some realistic looking sets. I just hope that this improves the quality of the ART DIRECTION. Now, how many of you guys/gals have seen THE TERMINAL by STEVEN SPEILBERG staring TOM HANKS? 99% of the movie is picturized in a huge airport terminal set. It has to be seen to believe it… I know that for a single scene, it would be foolish for any producer to erect such sets. But you gotta understand that the film studios like Ramoji Film City have standard sets for such brief scenes. But the problem is that these standard sets are being used as is and without any customization of any sort. So, when ever we see these stations or airports on screen, they all look alike. And moreover they always look artificial due to lack of proper set designers. So I hope, with these strict stipulations, the quality of the SET DESIGN and every other related aspect would be uplifted.
TEJAs CHITRAM MOVIES and SURESH PRODUCTIONS are teaming up to produce an ALL-NEW-COMER flick. Producer D Suresh Babu informed the media that he liked the script developed by TEJA and came forward to produce it. Teja and we are producing it jointly, he said.
“This is the time that fresh water should flow in Tollywood. With the success of Happy Days, it is again proved that newcomers and new heroes are welcomed, ” TEJA reasoned.
The film will begin in February next year. Grapevine is that Teja was supposed to direct a film with Venkatesh on Suresh Productions banner but thankfully it didn’t materialize. One of the most OVER-RATED Directors of Tollywood… Mr. TEJA takes pride in HEROINE-BEATING to give us the SUPPOSED BEST QUALITY. I cannot speak for others but if that is the cost of my pleasure… I certainly don’t need that quality guys/gals…
I AM really GLAD to inform you all that I have been PARTLY WRONG and PARTLY CORRECT in THULASIs Box-Office Prediction. Very obviously, I am Glad for being PARTLY CORRECT. But also GLAD that I am PARTLY WRONG. The reason being that at least A center Telugu film audiences are showing signs of maturity and rejecting even the STAR movies. The recent examples are CHIRUTHA, ATHIDHI and THULASI. Coming to the Thulasi, it is one of the weakest movies of Venkatesh. I reviewed it so badly that it was in stark contrast with my Box-Office Prediction. But still, I was expecting a Blockbuster. So, did it really make it? The answer is NOOO. But it is a HIT anyway. THULASI is doing AVERAGE business in A centers, ABOVE AVERAGE business in B centers and BLOCKBUSTER business in C centers. So, overall THULASI is a HIT. But many of the A center audiences would perceive it as just an AVERAGE film.
Let me give you an example of an obscure film that many of you might not even remember. It is PUTTINTIKIRA CHELLI of ARJUN. It was one of the biggest hits of the year it got released but none from the A centers even knew about it. Like I always said, every film is not and need not be made for everybody. The same thing can be said about THULASI. But the profit percentages will be lower for THULASI as it had been acquired at a steep price by the buyers when compared to PUTTINTIKIRA CHELLI.
THULASI did really FLOP business in the Overseas. But no one really expected for it to do well in the overseas circuit. I really wonder as to why do these Distributors buy the rights of most of the films with out using some common sense. Anyway, Distributors in USA invested Rs. 1 + 0.12 Crores for it and until now the movie collected only Rs. 0.6 Crores. So, very obviously it won’t make it to the safety zone.
As far as the Andhra pradesh is concerned, as I said earlier, it is doing SAFE and sound business overall. No one is going to suffer loss in A.P. And what really made me ecstatic about is the fact that THULASI team did really reveal the true figures in their success meet (KUDOS TO THEM!!!). THULASI did really GROSSED 12 Crores in 12 days. Those figures are indeed a PERSONAL RECORD for Venkatesh’s movies. But they look paltry in comparison to the CHIRUTHAs and ATHIDHIs FAKE figures. And Thulasi is doing roaring business in some districts such as GUNTUR. Suresh Film Distributors released the figures for GUNTUR as Rs. 1,13,40,276/- in only 20 DAYS in only 15 CENTERS. These figures have been cross checked by my sources and they seem to be true.
So, overall THULASI is a success.
UPDATE: 22/11/2007
THULASI has crossed Rs. 22 Crores mark and is on its way to end up around Rs. 25-26 Crores in its entire run.
FILM AWARDS in Tollywood including NANDI AWARDS have always been all over the place with their selection process. They are 99% of the times INFLUENCED. And I don’t think that it will be any different with AP CINEGOERS ASSOCIATION 37th FILM AWARDS too. But the audiences need to be informed no matter what I think… Right?
So, here you go:
BEST ACTOR: NTR (RAKHI)
BEST ACTRESS: CHARMEE (RAKHI) - DON’T YOU GENUINELY FEEL RIDICULOUS ABOUT THIS AWARD. WHERE IS GENILIA OF BOMMARILLU MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEST DIRECTOR: PURI JAGANNATH (POKIRI)
BEST FILM: BOMMARILLU
BEST VILLAIN: SAI KUMAR (SAMANYUDU)
BEST MUSIC DIRECTOR: DEVI SRI PRASAD (BOMMARILLU)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: BAPU, RAMANA and JAYASUDHA
SPECIAL FELICITATION: SHYAM BENEGAL
THE AWARDS ARE GONNA BE PRESENTED SOMETIME IN DECEMBER AT LALITHA KALA THORANAM.
KRISHNA, a yesteryear star, is doing a special role in VIKRAMs MALLANNA. I think you all remember that Mallanna was launched both in Tamil and Telugu with much fanfare. The producer of the movie KALAIPULI S THANU confirms the presence of Krishna in the movie. Mallanna is being directed by SUSI GANESHAN and SHRIYA is the female lead in the movie. The film is scheduled to be shooting in Ramoji Film City from 12th November.
DON is the next hope for NAGARJUNA to further his career. And so the Director LAWRENCE and the Producers from KEERTHI CREATIONS are leaving no stone unturned. Earlier a character was created for the NEW GOLDEN LEG of the Telugu film industry JAGAPATHI BABU. Almost every movie in recent times with Jagapathi Babu’s involvement has been a success. A few examples are ANUKOKUNDA OKAROJU and LAKSHYAM. Jagapathi is donning the role of a POLICE OFFICER in DON. Wherein, Nagarjuna is playing a modern day ROBIN HOOD according to the industry sources.
Now, the movie is being slated for release on 20th December. If you remember correctly it is the day that MANMATHUDU released 5 years ago. So, I just hope that DON will be as entertaining if not better than MANMATHUDU.