UTV acquires Athidi's theatrical rights for 18.5 crores

UTV, one of the largest production companies in the country is clear about its intentions to enter the Telugu film industry. Earlier, they tried to do a 3 film deal with Mahesh Babu. That deal is still being worked up. Now, they have acquired the all-Andhra Pradesh theatrical rights of the film from the producers for a sum of 18.5 crores. This excludes the West Godavari area, which is worth 1.1 to 1.25 crores and includes the remaining big territories like Nizam, Ceeded and Vizag. Also, one has to see if they would release the film by setting up offices and through partners or sell it again to other distributors. Its learnt that UTV has also leased a few theaters for long term to test waters in the exhibition arena.

Sushant Singh replaces Prakash Raj in Mahesh’s Athidi

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh, who acted in a few Ram Gopal Verma films made his mark as a mainstream villain in Raviteja’s Dubai Seenu. He, now has another big budget film in his kitty – Prince Mahesh’s upcoming film – Athidi. Initially, the makers have roped in Prakash Raj to play the villain and have even announced it to the media. Now, the veteran actor has been dropped, for reasons not known. Prakash Raj was always in the news in the recent times for wrong reasons related to his professional life. The movie’s climax would be shot at Nagarjuna Sagar from the 15th of this month. The movie itself is slated for release in the first week of September. The audio would release on August 9th, which is incidentally Mahesh’s birthday.

Mahesh to don 6 different hairtyles in Athidi

If Superstar Rajnikanth could don fifteen different hairstyles and getups in Sivaji, why would our own superstar be any lesser. In his upcoming film Athidi, Prince Mahesh Babu is going to don 6 different hair styles in each of the six songs in the film. But, through out the film he would have the regular hairstyle, which he has been maintaining in Pokiri and Sainikudu. Mahesh’s personal hairstylist Sania, form Mumbai would be executing this experiment. Mani Sharma scores the music for this film, which is being directed by Surender Reddy. Reddy’s previous films are Athanaokkade and Ashok. The movie has Bollywood glamdoll Amrita Rao in the lead. The film’s audio would release on the 9th of August, which incidentally is Mahesh’s birthday while the movie itself would release in September 2007

Trivikram to pen dialogues for Mahesh's Mirchi?

Mirchi is the title registered for Prince Mahesh's next movie. Mahesh's friend - Hemambar Jasti, who worked as an associate director for many of his movie will be making his debut as a director with this film. The movie has a caption, 'Veedu chala hot guru' - on the lines of Radio Mirchi's tagline, 'idi chala hot guru'. The buzz is that Mahesh and the director managed to rope in Trivikram Srinivas as the dialouge writer for the movie. It should be known that the muhurath of Mahesh and Trivikram Srinivas' Hare Rama Hare Krishna was held recently and the both are working togather. The movie would begin after the completion of Athidi

Mahesh Babu signs 3-film deal with UTV for 15 crore?

The signs of corporatization in the film industry is not just restricted to Bollywood. Thanks to Sivaij, who big names of the entertainment industry are looking at regional cinema too. The mother of all deals was by Adlabs, who signed Hrithik Roshan for 35 crores for 3 films. The deal went awry inbetween but finally fell in place. They also signed Priyanka Chopra, Madhur Bandarkar and Metro-fame Anurag Basu for an undisclosed sum. Adlabs recently released their first tamil film - Kireedam which has Ajith in the lead. The movie was a co-production was Sujatha Cine Arts. Meanwhile, Eros International the largest distributor of Bollywood films has acquired a 51% controlling stake in Ayngaran, a tamil home video and distribution arm. Meanwhile, Pyramid Saimira a Indo-Malaysian company raised $80 million on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise capital to acquire theatres and film in India, most importantly AP and Tamil Nadu.
The so-called corporates tried to make an entry into the movie business before, but failed miserably. The Birla Group produced a telugu film under their banner 'Applause Entertainment', which sank without trace and the company shut shop. UTV, the integrated media congolomerate which has presence in television and films has struck a deal with Mahesh Babu. The buzz in the trade is that, they have reportedly paid the star a hefty sum of 15 crores for 3 films. The movies would be produced by UTV with top talent in the industry. As UTV and Mahesh are tight lipped about it, its not known if the contract is exclusive. If so, it closes doors for other producers to solely produce the film with Mahesh. They can only co-produce a film with UTV.
UTV produced films like Rang De Basanti, Life in a Metro, Khosla Ka Ghosla and has a major stake in Hungama, Disney's kids channel. UTV recently raised a sum of $70 million through the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London, by shedding some of its stake. Lets wait and watch how the industry reacts to it. Most of the top directors have taken an advance from other producers to make a film with Mahesh. Also, a few of Mahesh's forthcoming projects are produced on his home banner. In that case, they would become co-productions with UTV. An official announcement from the star and the studio is awaited.

athidi updates

ATHIDI Updates! The next Schedule of ATHIDI will commence from the 22nd of April. This Schedule will continue till May 12th. They will Shoot the Talkie-Part from the 22nd and then a Song will be canned in the Sets erected at Padmalaya and Annapurna Studios for 4 days from the 29th of April.

pokiri celebrations

PRINCE & POKIRI TEAM Celebrate 365 Days!!! Puri Jagannadh, Manjula, Namritha, Executive Producer Krishna and Subba Raju had a 2 hr get together in the sets of ATHIDI at Journalist Colony. The team of POKIRI will be having a private party at Vaishno Academy office . Our Team member Ravi Congratulated everyone on behalf of for giving us "South Indian's Biggest Hit and Highest Grosser" and a Movie with 365 Days run nearly after 21 years in Tollywood. Director Puri hapened to speak with Ravi and said that there will be another Movie with Mahesh in the end of 2008. Executive Producer Krishna and Sanjay will be attending the Function arranged by fans in Kurnool on the 6th of