Raining success

Gandhinagar Grapevine

A two-day stubble and a morose look didn’t help either. Director Mahesh rushed to rescue him and soon the show was underway. Mahesh’s Iniya, directed for producer Shailendra Babu, has completed shooting in Malaysia, Sakleshpur and Bangalore. Mahesh first spoke about how the film was born. Mussanjemaatu had just then released. Babu called up the director and asked him to direct a film for him.

Mahesh fed him a one-line story and asked for eight months to develop it. Babu, who had seen Mahesh’s work in Ganda, Hendathi... earlier waited. “In Iniya, we have scaled new heights in love, one that was not thought of by anyone else,” Mahesh beamed. He was all praises for Pooja Gandhi, his heroine, for her professionalism. Not a word about her acting, wonder why? Pooja, for her part recalled how emotional the director had become when narrating the script to her. Pooja is also delighted to have done the film in which she has had to be more talkative and spend more energy.

Mahesh has repeated the Mussanjemaatu team here as well — cinematographer Sundarnath Suvarna and composer Sridhar. 

Sridhar acknowledged the high expectations of him to deliver a bigger hit than Mussanjemaatu. That Iniya has shaped into a wonderful product, was the consensus.

New flick in the making

With recession and theatre timings being changed, here’s something to cheer about. Our Loose Mada Yogesh had missed out on notching up a century in Nanda Nandita, but his next, Ambari has more than made up for the disappointment. The first film of 2009 to complete 100 successful days, Ambari has given several people reasons for hope. The first being director Arjun whose script was inspired by a girl getting her footwear stitched by a cobbler in Dollar’s Colony! He was also happy that his hero had pedalled his cycle nearly 1,800 km -all the way to Taj Mahal, with his sweetheart perched in front of him. The sweetheart, Supreetha was present at the press meet called by the director and others, Yogesh was not. Arjun is now ready to make a film starring Puneet Rajkumar. For Petrol Prasanna, praises from Namma Appu has added to recognition. Puneet has promised to cast him in his forthcoming films as well! Ambari has completed 100 days in about 12 centres as of now.

Meanwhile, Savari, the remake of Gamyam is doing well for itself. Released at the same time as Shivamani’s Jhossh, this film has struck a chord with both the classes and the masses, felt executive producer Subba Naidu, who is now confident that the film will exceed the half-century mark, given that the film is getting a good family viewership.
Raghu Mukherjee, the hero is thrilled with the good reviews he’s got alongside heroine Kamalinee Mukherjee and Srinagara Kitti. So much so that this model will now ‘seriously’ consider acting as his career. 

Writer Manju Mandavya is relieved that his friends have finally accepted this film, after remaining indifferent to his other films. Kitti was particularly struck by people telling him that he shouldn’t have died in the film! But then, death sometimes guarantees success.


Spelling trouble

Chocolate boy Dharma Keerthiraj will now show the world what a mess he’s landed himself in when shooting for his second film-Idu Chakravyuha - as full-time hero. At the outset, director Anthony alias Yuvi made it clear that the film was inspired by the Kim Bassinger-Chris Evans starrer Cellular. Yuvi, who has worked in films including Hum and Khel, outlined the plight of a man who films an illegal activity. Soon the baddies and the police get after him. Dharma described his character as “bubbly in the first half and serious in the second.” The heroine is yet to be finalised and it is a toss-up between Sandhya and Barkha, revealed producer T Janardhan. One of the highlights of the film is Sudharani’s daughter Nidhi’s debut. The seven-year-old girl will be seen alongside her mother and Shashikumar plays her father. Considering Sudharani debuted at 14 years, it is time for the child to find out if she can repeat her mother’s success.