Sachin: A Billion Dreams emerges as the 8th highest grosser of 2017

Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar’s biopic, Sachin: A Billion Dreams is managing to do some good business across all the release centres. The film is inching closer to the 50 crore mark.

As per reports from trade analysts, the film has earned around Rs 45.50 crores at the domestic box office. Interestingly, the film has now surpassed the lifetime collections of Naam Shabana, which stood at the 8th position with a collection of 36.50 crores. It has now become the 8th highest grosser of the year.

Sachin: A Billion Dreams is a docu-drama which is a new experience for the audience. Despite that, the movie has managed to do such great business only because of the huge fan base that Sachin Tendulkar enjoys.

The film, directed by James Erskine showcases Sachin Tendulkar’s journey from his childhood to become the world’s best cricketer. Apart from his cricket and personal life, it also reveals certain unknown aspects of his life. The film has real footage from Sachin’s personal life to the years he spent on the field.

Sachin Tendulkar, his wife Anjali, kids Sara and Arjun, popular Indian players like Virat Kohli, M S Dhoni and Virender Sehwag are seen sharing their experiences with the legend. Oscar Award winner AR Rahman has composed the music. The film was shot simultaneously in Hindi, Marathi and English. It was dubbed and released in Tamil and Telugu languages.

Sachin: A Billion Dreams is produced by Ravi Bhagchandka and Carnival Motion Pictures under the banner of 200 NotOut Productions.

Sridevi has no issues about opting out of Baahubali

Veteran actress Sridevi is currently busy with the promotions of her upcoming movie Mom, which she is also producing. During a recent interaction with medias, she was quizzed about her reaction towards losing out on Baahubali and what she feels about director Rajamouli’s remarks on her.

Sridevi chose to skip the question but upon insistence, she said, “Both the parts of the picture has been released and has become successful. Now there is nothing to talk about it.”

It is a known fact that SS Rajamouli had initally approached Sridevi to play the pivotal role of Sivagami in Baahubali. However, Sridevi had quoted a hefty sum as remuneration. She had also made some unreasonable demands including booking an entire floor in a five-star hotel and business class tickets from Mumbai to Hyderabad everytime she flied down for shooting. The actress even demanded a share from the Hindi version of Baahubali. The makers of Baahubali could not accept her demands and eventually approached Ramya Krishnan for the role.

In a recent interview, SS Rajamouli said that they were fortunate that Sridevi opted out of the franchise.
He is quoted saying, “After hearing a series of wishes from Sridevi, we thought that it would be above our budget to meet her demands. Then we approached Ramya Krishnan and she proved herself fantastic and we now feel, we were lucky that we dropped the idea of having Sridevi in our film. The movie wouldn’t have been like that had if she has done Sivagami’s role. Sridevi is known for subtle performances and she doesn’t have a powerful voice. Whereas, Ramya Krishnan has a terrific screen presence, voice and is capable of delivering a power packed performance.”

Sridevi’s upcoming movie Mom is releasing in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam on July 7. The movie, directed by Ravi Udayawar is also the 300th film of Sridevi. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshaye Khanna and Abhimanyu Singh will also be seen in prominent roles.

Alphonse Puthren’s new movie titled as Thobama

Director Alphonse Puthren is trying his hand in production through an upcoming movie directed by one of his friends, Mohsin Kassim. The movie has been titled as Thobama.

The Premam gang of Siju Wilson, Krishna Shankar, Sharafudheen and Shabareesh Varma are playing the lead roles. A newcomer is playing the female lead in this movie. Krishna Shankar has put on a few kilos to play his part in Thobama, which promises to be a youth centric fun entertainer.

Meanwhile, Alphonse Puthren’s next directorial is all set to go on floors. It will be a Tamil movie, his first straight film in Kollywood. The director has not yet spilled beans about the cast members of his new movie.

Alphonse had recently revealed that his next will be a musical entertainer. For his upcoming movie, he has retained his two trusted friends/technicians; cinematographer Anend C Chandran and composer Rajesh Murugesan. More details regarding the project is expected to be announced in the next few days.

Priyadarshan to remake Maheshinte Prathikaram in Tamil?

According to our sources, veteran filmmaker Priyadarshan is planning to remake last year’s superhit movie Maheshinte Prathikaram in Tamil. Actor Udhaynidhi Stalin recently took to social media to announce that his next movie will be with Priyadarshan.

Santhosh Nair of Moonshot Entertainment is producing this movie. Incidentally, he is also the chairman of OPM Dream Mill Cinemas who co-produced Maheshinte Prathikaram. NK Ekambaram, who handled the camera in Priyadarshan’s Oppam has been roped in as the DOP for this new movie.

Maheshinte Prathikaram was a huge success both critically and commercially. Fahadh Faasil played the lead role in this movie directed by Dileesh Pothen. It is a comedy drama set in the picturesque Idukki.

Maheshinte Prathikaram won numerous accolades including the National Award for best feature film in Malayalam. Scenarist Shyam Pushkaran won the award for best screenplay at both the State and National level. Interestingly, Priyadarshan was the jury chairman of last year’s National Film Awards.

Priyadarshan’s last Tamil movie was Sila Samayangalil. The movie, starring Prakash Raj, Sriya Reddy and Ashok Selvan in the lead roles was selected for the final round of the 74th Golden Globe Awards.

Mammootty spreads awareness among students on World Environment Day

On the occasion of World Environment Day, the Kerala government has the Haritha Kerala Mission to plant one crore saplings across the state. Megastar Mammootty also joined the drive by spreading awareness about the need for conservation of environment among students. The actor has always been in the forefront to lend support for any social cause. In 2014, he started a campaign called My Tree Challenge through which he planted trees and challenged other actors to do so.

Earlier in the day, Mohanlal inaugurated the initiative at St. Xavier’s College in Trivandrum by planting a sapling.
One crore trees will be planted across the state today as part of the World Environment Day celebrations. All government bodies, schools and voluntary associations are expected to take part in the drive.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged the people to support the initiative organized by the Forest, Environment and Agriculture departments. They have supplied saplings of about 100 varieties of fruit bearing and medicinal trees. aims to plant as many trees as possible to conserve environment and to make the state greener.