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Tollywood heroine Rashi Khanna, who is celebrating her birthday today, has spent her birthday night with her most favorite people from the Telugu industry.

The 23-year-old actress called for a privy party at her new home and almost all the young heros were in attendance. “When it’s Ur besties bday dres hell lota madness @RaashiKhanna !! #party #fun #filmi #crazyyy”, tweeted Rakul Preet Singh.

Actor Nikhil Siddhartha, who plays an NRI in forthcoming Telugu crime-thriller “Shankarabharanam”, says he spent over a month in New York to be able to sink his teeth into the character. “I wanted to observe NRIs from close quarters, so I stayed in New York for 45 days before we started shooting. It helped me in the preparation for my role and getting all the nuances of the character right,” Nikhil told IANS. In the film, he plays a rich American-born confused desi, who has seen India only on a map. It’s an adaptation of Subhash Kapoor-directed “Phas Gaye Re Obama”. “We’ve retained the core theme, but have weaved a different story around it,” he said, adding writer Kona Venkat, who acquired the remake rights, has brought in a very different perspective to the story. “Since Kona sir is a writer, he ensured that our film isn’t a frame-to-frame remake. While the original is funny, our film is funnier. He reinvented comedy and avoided using the brand of humour he’s known for,” said Nikhil, who found striking a balance between foreign and Indian accent extremely challenging. “As an NRI character, I wanted to be sure how much of English and Telugu I was allowed to speak. Usually I finish dubbing for my film in three or four days but this time I spent 15 days. So, you can imagine all the effort that has gone in to get the accent right,” he said.

Directed by Uday Nandavanam, the film has been shot against the backdrop of crime in Bihar. Recalling the shooting experience, Nikhil said: “We were told it was extremely risky to shoot in Bihar, hence we shot in Madhya Pradesh and near Maharashtra border. We travelled 150 km each day from our hotel to shoot.” “It was so much fun but equally tiring,” he reminisced. In the film, Nikhil is paired with Nandita. He says she helped him perform better. “Since she knew the language, she didn’t need to be prompted with her lines. This really enabled both of us to perform better,” he said, adding that she plays a Bihari in the film. “Nandita will be seen in a completely de-glam avatar. The team has worked really hard to get every minute detail about Bihari culture to perfection – right from the architecture to even the clothes Nandita wears,” he added. The film has borrowed its title from a yesteryear blockbuster of the same name. While there’s no special reason behind opting for the same title, Nikhil says they’ve done total justice to it. “The reason was very simple. We wanted a title with great recall value and since Kona sir’s last film was titled after Mani Ratnam’s ‘Geethanjali’, he decided to use the title ‘Shankarabharanam’ this time. The title is justified in the opening scene,” he said. The team even sought the permission of veteran filmmaker K.V. Vishwanath to use the title of his film. The movie releases worldwide on Friday.

Suriya’s Telugu-Tamil bilingual project with filmmaker Trivikram, which was announced a few months ago, will finally go on floors next year, a source said. “As soon as Suriya completes shooting for ‘Singam 3’, he will start working on the project with Trivikram. It will be his first bilingual film which will also mark his debut in Telugu filmdom,” a source from the film’s unit told IANS.

To be produced by Haarika and Hassine Creations, the film is likely to have music by Devi Sri Prasad. Suriya currently awaits the release of Tamil psychological thriller “24”, and he will soon start shooting for “Singam 3”.

Controversies love child Ram Gopal Varma is at it again. Stroking a new controversy, RGV stated that porn star Tori Black has a great effect on his life than what Mother Teresa did. Showcasing his admiration for Tori Black, RGV went onto dedicate his autobiography “Guns & Thighs” to Tori Black.

Talking about it, RGV said, “Tori Black contributed more to my life than Mother Theresa. I don’t know Mother Theresa well and what she did because I’m not into charity or welfare work. All of them in the book’s dedication (Mad Magazine, Ayn Rand, Urmila Matondkar, Bruce Lee, Amitabh Bachchan, Tori Black), one way or the other, they did something in my life. If Dawood Ibrahim hadn’t existed, I wouldn’t have made Satya or Company, so I can’t take away the contribution he made to my life.”

However, RGV had to take away Dawood’s name as the book publisher opposed to the idea of including Dawood’s name suspecting troubles. “If it’s my film, I’d have said I don’t care,” clarified RGV who usually never compromises. At the moment, RGV’s autobiography is on stores.

VV Vinayak is known as one of the coolest personalities in Telugu cinema industry. He always maintains good relations with his producers and heroes. Even Vinayak has lost his cool in regard of Akhil movie says the buzz. Vinayak was asked to pay about sixty percent of his remuneration back to the buyers for Akhil who has lost so much in it. Vinayak has reportedly paid back 2.5 crore in cash and another 2 crore in the form of post dated cheques. He is furious over Akhil producers for making him the scapegoat for this failure. He asked Akhil producers to produce every penny that was spent on the movie. He also asked them to produce the business details of the film.

Both Vinayak and Akhil have given back a chunk of their remuneration taking responsibility for the failure. But the producers Sudhakar Reddy and Nithin were not willing to compensate the losses of buyers as they say that they have lost so much already. Vinayak is not buying this and asked them to produce every detail about the money spent and made on the movie. Akhil ended up as a colossal flop as the movie made only 17 crore from the theatricals while it was sold for 47 crore. Yes, it was a mega disaster!