Legend Takes Balayya Over The 100-Days

Legend Takes Balayya Over The 100-Days

Nandamuri Balakrishna has reason to feel more than thrilled this week, what with his 97 film, the Boyapati Sreenu-directed ‘Legend’ crossing the 100-day mark in 31 theatres across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Produced by the 14 Reels Entertainment under Vaarahi Chalana Chitram banners by Ram Achanta, Gopichand Achanta and Anil Sunkara, the film that falls in the action/family drama genre piped the 100-day post.

‘Legend’, that has Sonal Chauhan and Radhika Apte as ‘Balayya’ Babu’s co-stars, apart from Jagapathi Babu and Brahmanandam, hit the theatres on March 28. But interestingly, trade figures indicate that of the 31 theatres, 25 are what are called ‘direct theatres’ - as in venues where the movie was shown 100 days without a break.

The last Telugu movie to hit a century was the Trivikram Srinivas-directed ‘Atharintiki Daaredi’ with Pawan Kalyan and Samantha in the lead, that was released on July 27, 2013. Of the 32 theatres where it ran 100 days, only 18 were ‘direct’!

RGV’s experiments with films

Call it marketing gimmick or plain creativity, everything and anything about director Ram Gopal Verma makes news. His latest horror-thriller flick, ‘Ice Cream’, is grabbing headlines for alleged nude shots of actress Tejaswi.

But RGV being that unconventional director, there has to be something unique about the way such intimate scenes are canned. According to sources, the director along with the crew had left the camera and the actress in a room after explaining the scene, thus giving the liberty to the actress to shoot the scene as per her convenience.

For another shot which needed the actress to be spooked, the director left her alone in a dark room surrounded by cameras in an independent bungalow in Film Nagar so as to literally scare the girl. The maverick director is also known for his quick pace of film-making. It is learnt that he had shot the entire movie in less than two weeks with most of the scenes filmed in just one location.

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RBI Against Waiver Of Crop loans In Telangana

RBI Against Waiver Of Crop loans In Telangana

The efforts of Telangana Government to convince the Reserve Bank of India on loan waiver scheme reportedly drew a blank with the apex bank firm that such schemes will affect the credit repayment discipline of the borrowers and adversely impact the liquidity of the banks.

A team of Finance Department officials led by Chief Secretary Rajeev Sharma in a meeting with RBI officials at Mumbai on Friday was non committal on giving an assurance on their request for rescheduling of crop loans of last Kharif and Rabi.

The RBI officials explained once again why they could not entertain loan waiver schemes as it would impact the financial health of the banks. Several bankers expressed concern over the reluctance of the farmers in repayment and renewal of crop loans and agricultural term loans anticipating a debt waiver. As a result, it was mentioned in the recent State level bankers committee meeting that banks were unable to recycle the funds owing to non-repayment of loans and mounting over dues.

Telangana officials, according to sources, explained that the outstanding loans as on March 31 stood at Rs.17,000 crore. But with the RBI ruling out loan waiver, they urged the apex bank to give some leeway by rescheduling crop loans to the tune of Rs.9,000 crore keeping in view crop damaged in 337 mandals due to Phailin cyclone in October 2013.

The rescheduling of crop loans, they said, would give a breather to the State and the farmers with a moratorium on repayment for first year and repayment of loan over a period of four to seven years.

The expert committee on loan waiver appointed by Andhra Pradesh Government also had represented to the RBI for its clearance for the loan waiver in vain. The AP Government was also now pinning its hopes for RBI’s clearance for rescheduling of crop loans in drought and cyclone affected 575 mandals.

Among others Principal Secretary V.Nagi Reddy, special secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and advisor to the Government G. R. Reddy attended the meeting. 

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TRS Maintains winning streak In MPP polls

TRS Maintains winning streak In MPP polls 

The TRS maintained its good performance in the elections to municipal bodies by winning the chairmanship of 199 Mandal Praja Parishads against 114 of Congress, 37 of TDP and 21 others in Telangana on Friday. The elections were held to 371 MPPs while it was postponed in 24 others due to lack of quorum.

The TRS won majority MPPs in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak and Mahbubnagar while the Congress did so in Nalgonda. The two parties secured the same number of MPPs in Warangal and Ranga Reddy but the election was stayed in Khammam on court orders over the controversy surrounding Polavaram project. However, the direct election of Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituency members in Khammam who were supposed to elect their presidents was held three months ago.

The election of presidents and vice-presidents of MPPs was taken up on Friday at 3 p.m. after the process to induct co-opted members of the bodies was completed in the morning. Only the MPTC members participated in the voting by show of hands while the co-opted members and MPs and MLAs were ex-officio members who did not having voting right.

A bandh was called by the BJP at Renjal in Nizamabad district after an MPTC member of the party switched over to Congress which tilted the scales in favour of the latter. The BJP alleged that the member was forcibly taken away by the Congress. The police resorted to lathicharge when BJP activists jostled with the Congress MPTCs.

The windshield of Parkal TDP MLA C. Dharma Reddy’s car was broken by irate TRS workers when he walked into the MPP office at Geesugonda in Warangal district. He escorted the MPTC members of TDP, inviting protest by TRS. A sub-inspector was injured in the attack by a mob when the police resorted to lathicharge during a clash between Congress, TDP and TRS workers at Lingala Ghanpur in the same district.

Congress workers hurled stones on the car of TRS MLA Marri Janardhan Reddy on suspicion that he was going with an MPTC member of their party at Bijinepalli in Mahbubnagar district. Another TRS MLA Guvvala Balaraju lodged a police complaint alleging highhandedness by Congress during the election at Vangur in the same district.

The authorities resorted to toss of the coin to decide winners following a tie between contestants at Vangur, Dharpalli and Morthad in Nizamabad and Ibrahimpatan in Ranga Reddy. The coin favoured Congress at three places. The election of ZP chairmen will take place on Saturday 

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Lack of Facilities At Secretariat Irks Naidu

Lack of Facilities At Secretariat Irks Naidu

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his unhappiness over lack of facilities in the blocks allotted to the AP Secretariat even after one month of the State bifurcation.

Mr. Naidu, who dropped in at the Secretariat, on way back from Tank Bund after paying tributes to Alluri Sitaramaraju statue here on Friday inspected the L block and then went to the 8 floor where his office and the Chief Minister’s peshi would come up.

Mr. Naidu, who also went round the J block, was irked to see several departments in a ramshackle appearance with furniture and sacs of files still dumped in the corridors in the blocks. Mr. Naidu sought to know why the departments were still in transition mode and the reasons for the slow pace of work.

The delay in shifting of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh employees to their respective blocks, shortage of rooms for secretaries of departments due to paucity of space, change of plans midway to shift the CMO from South H block to L block for Vasthu reasons, lack of building division wing in AP Secretariat to carry out required changes and tentative allotment of IAS officers contributed to the uncertainty, sources said. However, the work on Chief Minister’s Office and other wings will start from Saturday and is expected to be completed in three months and by then new lift for the Chief Minister to enter his office in L Block will also be ready, officials said.

The R&B department also had to cater to the maintenance of Ministers’ and officers quarters and repairs at the Lake View Guest House- the Chief Minister’s Camp Office with its limited staff, they said

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Virender Sehwag strikes Gold

Virender Sehwag strikes Gold

NEW DELHI: The Delhi and District Cricket Association ( DDCA) will present swashbuckling batsman Virender Sehwag 100 gold coins, for playing 100 Tests, at a grand function here this month.

GOLD RUSHGOLD RUSHThe DDCA will also felicitate its patron- in- chief Arun Jaitley for being appointed Union Finance Minister recently, Mukul Rohatgi for being chosen as the Attorney General of India, and senior advocates Ranjit Kumar and Maninder Singh for being picked as the Solicitor General and Additional Solicitor General respectively.

Former India women’s captain Anjum Chopra will also be honoured for being bestowed the Padma Shri this year. Barring Anjum, all others are also members of the DDCA. It is learnt that the function would be held only after the Union Budget is presented by Jaitley on July 10.

HONOURS FOR JAITLEY AND ANJUM CHOPRA

"We will be honouring Sehwag, Mr. Jaitley and others, but the date of the function is yet to be finalised,” DDCA president S. P. Bansal told MAIL TODAY.
Jaitley was DDCA president for 14 years, till December, when he withdrew from contesting for another term. He is currently DDCA’s patron- in-chief.
Bansal confirmed that Sehwag, who played his 100th Test against England in November 2012, would be presented with the gold coins. The coins are most likely to be made of 24- carat gold, though the weight of each coin is to yet be determined.

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Yahoo Bollywood Movies Review

Yahoo Bollywood Movies Review 

Cast: Vidya Balan, Ali Fazal, Kiran Kumar, Supriya Pathak Kapur, Tanvi Azmi, Arjan Bajwa

Direction: Samar Shaikh

Samar Shaikh’s naïve detective is not savvy but despite the lack of sophistication, our lady Karamchand has a certain charm that keeps us intrigued. The same can be said about the film ‘Bobby Jasoos’, while it might not break new ground as a Bollywood detective film, it manages to keep us entertained.

Bilkis aka Bobby Jasoos (Vidya Balan) has no formal training, no exceptional expertise, and no finesse and yet, this 30-year-old Hyderabadi girl from a middle-class Muslim family wants to become a famous detective. No one takes her seriously, neither her family nor a potential employer, except her two loyal sidekicks – Shetty (Prasad Barve) and Munna (Aakash Dahiya). In fact, when you see her go about her business, you realize that though she might be good with her many guises, she lacks a basic quality that any detective should possess – discretion. In fact, most of the time, she is clueless on how to embark on her investigation. She ends up making her search a big event rather than tactfully complete the entrusted task.

I actually had more fun watching Shetty and Munna, who were desperate to help than while following Bobby on her fanciful adventures. The small jobs that Bobby was offered by friends, so that they could circumvent uncomfortable situations, also made for some genuinely funny moments. There was hardly any detective work involved but it helped her make some quick bucks.
In fact, even when she gets a big break, it’s less about her competence and more about the logistics – she is at the right place at the right time. And I like that about the director - he never tries to make Bobby an over-achiever, while her process evolves a little by the third search, her craft hasn’t really transformed much. As a viewer while you realize that she really might not make it big as a detective ever, you are still willing to indulge her lofty ambitions.

‘Bobby Jasoos’ is not about how successful Bilkis will be as a detective but it is more about her trying to prove to her father that a young Muslim girl can have dreams other than just aspire to settle down for marital bliss.

And this is where the romantic track also conforms to the theme. Two unlikely people, both looking for an escape from their predictable futures find themselves trapped and betrothed. Bobby is bold, Tasawur (Ali Fazal) is non-confrontational and yet, it becomes increasingly impossible for them to get out of a seemingly uncomplicated arrangement.

Ali Fazal is a pleasant surprise – suave as a local television show host, well spoken and a little too passive, he is a charmer.

Vidya is most definitely more effective in her serious roles than in a comic part but she makes the clumsy Bobby a very believable character.
The film has a solid supporting cast that makes little moments memorable – Supriya Pathak Kapur, Tanvi Azmi and Prasad Barve are commendable in their roles.

To be honest if I had to compare this with another film, the antics of ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ (2005) and the scams they managed to pull off where far more hilarious.
‘Bobby Jasoos’ is not a laughter riot but there’s a rare subtlety in this film that is hard to find these days.

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