The last time a Rakshashudu hit the Telugu audiences was in 1986: the Chiranjeevi-starrer directed by veteran Kodandarami Reddy. It was a runaway success then and is still remembered by most film buffs. In this century, actor Suriya will be seen with a sizzling Nayanatara and Praneetha (best remembered for her role in Attharintiki Daaredi with Pawan Kalyan) in a movie of the same name, directed by Venkat Prabhu, who directed Gambler and Biryani .
For all those Suriya fans eager to see him on screen after 7th Sense last year, May 29 is when Rakshashudu will appear on 700 screens worldwide. At the audio release of the this Telugu version of Masss , there was an air of expectancy over Yuvan Shankar Raja’s music.
Interestingly, his father, the maestro Ilayaraja composed the notes for the first Rakshashudu .
When contacted over phone, Suriya said he was definitely thrilled at the prospect of appearing before Telugu audiences. But when asked about when he would do a straight Telugu film, he paused for a few moments before coming up with an all-too-familiar response, “Very soon”. And how soon would that be? There was no straight answer for that though.
Incidentally, the talk in Telugu tinsel town is that Suriya has almost firmed up an offer to do a Telugu film with director Trivikram Srinivas. While no one has confirmed this yet, and going by the way people associated with Trivikram are feigning ignorance, it sure looks as if the Suriya-Trivikram combination will be announced soon. By the way, even Trivikram was not available for comment!
Manchu Manoj into wedlock
It turned out to be a truly glittering event indeed when young Telugu film actor Manchu Manoj tied the knot with Pranathi Reddy in the city last week. The who’s who of the glamour world and political bigwigs of both Telugu States were seen blessing the couple. Those present included film stars from Rajnikanth to Prabhas and Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The celebrations unleashed for the wedding of actor Mohan Babu’s younger son turned out to be the big talk in the film industry as Pawan Kalyan, Ambarish, Mahesh Babu and Suriya, among others, joined in the festivities. Siblings Manchu Vishnu and Manchu Lakshmi played perfect host at the lavish event with Mohan Babu taking care of every small detail.
Buzz around Chiru’s 150th
The talk of the town is Chiranjeevi’s 150th movie. After his son and actor Ram Charan Tej announced on Facebook that he would produce the movie and Puri Jagannath would wield the megaphone, fans of the megastar have gone into an overdrive.
From creating pages on social networking sites to designing and uploading the film posters, to even editing slick trailers, the fans are seen doing it all. Meanwhile, the news doing the rounds is that the movie will be named Auto Jani , and Puri Jagannath had come up with the story.
The director, who was written off some time ago, is back in the reckoning. He recently took to Twitter to confirm that he will be working with Mahesh Babu for the third time.
Suresh Krishnamoorthy, T. Lalith Singh & Rahul Devulapalli
