Maa Anayina Soundaraya
Targetted at wooing womenfolk
Srihari has captured the mass audience with his dare-devil action in films but the female cinegoers have kept away from them. He now seems to be consciously trying to break away from that action hero image. His next film is specifically targetted at womenfolk. He is confident that his role of a sacrificing brother in Maa Ayina Soundaraya would fetch him female following. Actress Deepti of Doubles fame plays his wife in this typical family drama. Producer Mahendra introduced Srihari as hero in Police and followed it up with another hit Deva. After a gap, the filmmaker is now on the verge of a hat-trick with Srihari. Mahendra, a man of few words, expressed confidence about the film after watching its rushes, which in itself is an indication that he has a winner on hand. He was ready to release the film for the Sankranti festival but the release has been postponed to the last week of January for lack of theatres. Director Haribabu, who directed Srihari in Ganapati last year,has helmed this sentimental drama penned by Posani Muralikrishna.

Will Srihari disappoint his action lovers? Not necessarily. The film, according to its makers, has a dose of action, particularly in the climax fight with Ponnambalam. Nonetheless, they claimed that the climax sequence would bring tears in the eyes of the audience and they hoped to woo the females audiences with it.

Sri Manjunath
Multi-lingual opus
With Chiranjeevi playing Lord Siva in Sri Manjunath, the film has aroused considerable interest even in Telugu. This multi-lingual magnum opus is being produced by Jayasree Devi under the Chinni Films banner. Meena plays Goddess Parvathi while Arjun plays Manjunath and Soundarya plays the wife of the disciple. Ace Telugu director K. Raghavendra Rao is helming this mythological, which incidentally is his maiden Kannada film. Chiranjeevi expressed happiness about his maiden devotional film. After shooting many scenes on a specially erected Ashram set at Ramoji Film City, the unit left for Bangalore to shoot 8 song sequences on Arjun and Soundarya.

Talking about the film Chiranjeevi said: “When there is dearth of makers for mythologicals writer Bhairavi approached me with this role while I was shooting for Mirgaraju. Impressed, I instantly allotted dates for the film. I feel honoured to get this memorable opportunity since it would enable me to get closer to the audience as Manjunath is beloved God of the Kannadigas. My longtime ambition to do a mythological movie has materialised with this different kind of devotional film”.

Producer Jayasri Devi said: “The film is progressing briskly under the able hands of Raghuvendra Rao and we have wrapped up nearly 80 per cent of this multilingual movie”.

Murari
Sonali Bendre-Mahesh starrer
Teen sensation Mahesh has joined hands with talented director Krishna Vamsi for his next release Murari. Producer Ramalingeshwar Rao, maker of the tasteful film Pelli, would be presenting the film being produced by Nandigam Gopi. According to Rao, the shooting is almost complete and it is slated for release in the month of February. Mumbai star Sonali Bendre is paired opposite the youngest son of superstar Krishna. She has expressed her willingness to do selected films in Telugu. Laxmi, Satyanarayana and Prakash Raj are also in the cast. Director Vamsi, who has proved his mettle in action films, has woven the script of Murari around a mystery surrounding a temple in a village in which, unfortunately, due to unknown reasons, three generations of an affluent family demise. Mahesh, who belongs to the last generation of the family, unravels the truth behind the mystery. How he does it forms the crux of the story. For Mahesh, it is a love story with some action. The teaming up of Mahesh and Krishna Vamsi has already evoked enough curiosity in the trade as well as among the viewers.

Producer Rao said: “We would be canning the last song in the first week of January and we would be planning about the release at the end of January. We would be releasing the audio cassettes through Supreme Audio”.

Navvuthu Bathakalira
Musical love story
Producer Srinivasa Reddy’s film Navvuthu Bathakalira with Chakravarthy in the lead is almost complete and is slated for release in the month of February. Director Kodi Ramakrishna, who is the second person to have directed the highest number of films after his mentor Dasari Narayana Rao, proved that his magic still works by delivering a superhit devotional film Devulu. He is also adept in remaking and this time he has chosen Prabhu Deva starrer Elayin Siripil and made some changes to suit our nativity. Mallavika, Deepti and Ashasaini play the female leads in this love story. Kodi, who introduced young music director Devisriprasad in Devi, has again repeated him in Navvuthu Bathakalira, in which buyers are showing considerable interest, specially after the success of Devulu.

Chakravarthy told Screen that the film had come out very well and added “apart from the story, even the songs will be an additional attraction of our film”. Director Kodi Ramakrishna said: “I always believed that every human being should lead his life happily, keeping aside his worries since laughter is the best medicine for a long life. We have made this film around this point and I hope audiences would enjoy it. I feel that a director thinking about the producer’s ‘safety’ is a minimum responsibility and not an additional responsibility”.
BVS Prakash>>>

Crime Story
Fight against vested interests
Suresh Gopi plays an investigative journalist and Tabu, a software engineer in Sri Raghavendra Movie International’s Crime Story dubbed from the Malayalam Cover Story. Says producer V. Kalyan Babu: “It is an actioner with a message. Suresh Gopi, the television channel’s reporter takes up the task of fighting for the underdogs in the society by putting an end to the vested interests who are oppressing the downtrodden. Tabu is cast as an innocent looking software engineer. The turning point in the story occurs at the interval stage and from then on it progresses to a thrilling climax. Biju Menon and Nedumudi Venu are in the cast. The dubbing is over and we are now recording two songs”.
Vennelakanti has written the lyrics and dialogues, while Sarath has composed the music for the film directed by G.S. Vijayan.

T Krishna Memorial’s Prod No 4
Gopichand’s debut as hero
After a hiatus of five years, the banner that gave three hits in a row - T Krishna Memorial Pictures- is back in business by announcing an untitled film with late T. Krishna’s son Gopichand as the hero. It will be directed by Muthyala Subbiah and the shoot is expected to commence soon. Said the director: “We waited for the right subject in tune with the banner’s progressive outlook. Finally, we found one and when we were in search of the hero, we found the late film maker T. Krishna’s son Gopichand, who by now is a well trained actor and suits the role. Thus, we are keeping the spirit of our mentor T. Krishna alive.” Producer M. Nageswara Rao, who had established the banner in the name of the late filmmaker who had catapulted Vijayashanti to instant stardom with the six films be had directed including ‘Prathighatana’, is now only too pleased to give a break to the legendary director’s son through his production No 4.

Naresh>>>