Nagarjuna’s Don with director Lawrence and heroine Anushka has completed 50 days in Telugu. ML Kumara Choudary who produced this film Don must be lucky that Bollywood producer purchased the dubbing rights of Don for Hindi by paying huge amount.The film is being dubbed in Hindi with title Don No.1 by producer Irfan. The dubbing work is in progress and the film will hit the North Indian screens very soon.
‘DON is doing extraordinary business in all the centers. In fact, at few centers, it created records and stands out as the highest grosser so far in Nagarjuna’s films. However, I noticed that a few media sources are doing negative propaganda on the film. Can you tell me how the film could get such good collections if the film is bad?’, questioned MLK Chowdary, producer of DON. Don starring Nagarjuna and directed by Lawrence released a week ago at the box office.
MLK Chowdary expressed his happiness about the run of the film not only in India but also overseas. ‘I am very happy about the run of the film but what hurts me is the negative scribing about the film in few media sources’, said MLK Chowdary. He released the first week collections of the film and challenged that if any one could prove the collections wrong, he would quit making movies. The collections stand as follows - Nizam: 5,63,60528, Ceded: 2,62,34230, vizag :1,21,22110, East Godavari: 54,89,218 West Godavari:56,72,100, Krishna:60,57,700, Guntur:91,22,400, Nellore:58,00,000, Bangalore:70,00,000 Share, Orissa:11,00,000, Overseas:84,00,000.
Talking about the run of the film in Chennai, Harsha Pictures proprietor Harsha said, ‘It never happened before. The film released in 5 theaters in Chennai. It was only Sivaji which released that way. The film collected 29,50,000 in first week. This is not just record among Nagarjuna’s film but for any other films too’.
 |
urprisingly the year 2007 saw a decline in the number of releases in Telugu when compared to the previous years. There were only 84 straight releases till December 20. Add to this about 60 dubbed films released during the year, the list looks an impressive 140 plus. As actor Mahesh Babu said that ‘the future of the Telugu film industry is now in the hands of the young generation,’ the year clearly belonged to the young directors and stars. But most debut directors failed to hit the bulls eye is another story.
The pleasant news is that though the releases dwindled, the hits were more than the previous year. 2007 opened with a thumping victory, the super duper hit, Desamudhuru directed by Puri Jagannath with Allu Arjun and Hansika Motwani in the lead. Close on the heels came the Venkatesh-starrer, Adavari Matalaku Ardhale Verule directed by Selva Raghavan (Sri Raghava), a huge hit. The three other big hits are Sekhar Kammula’s Happy Days, Lakshyam starring Jagapathi Babu and Gopichand, Rajamouli’s Yamadonga with NTR Jr. in the lead. The hit films are Tulasi, Okkadunnadu, Evadaithe Nakenti, Operation Duryodhana, Yamagola, Athili Sathibabu, Aadivaram Adavallaku Selavu, Chandamama, Madhumaasam, and the recently released Mantra while Dubai Seenu and Dhee termed as above average. Mahesh Babu starrer Athith’ and Ram Charan Tej’s debut film Chirutha opened to fantastic collections. Nagarjuna starrer, Don directed by Lawrence has hit the theatres on December 20 in Nizam and a day later in other areas in the state. Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna drew a blank as both Shankardada Zindabad and Maharadhi proved damp squibs at the turnstile. Chiranjeevi received the prestigious Padma Bhushan and his voluntary organisation the Blood Bank won the State award for the fifth consecutive year.
 |
Among the dubbed films, Rajnikath’s Sivaji created such an unparalleled hysteria among the cine goers and made record initial collections for any dubbed film in the past 75 years. The craze soon evaporated and none of the sixty plus dubbed films succeeded.
Technologically speaking, Telugu cinema made long strides and again to quote Mahesh Babu, “Telugu cinema today is ahead of other language industries in the South on technical aspects and content.†His Athidhi brought Hindi actor Amrita Rao to the South. “It is indeed the year of the young filmmakers. The redeeming feature is that each one of them brought a different theme and narrative style. When compared to last year, the content and treatment is more novel this year,†opines popular film critic Rentala Jayadeva.
Though 2007 is termed as the year of young talents, the worrying aspect is that most debutants and even some established young directors failed to click. The much-expected Yogi directed by the much successful V.V. Vinayak is an example. And the survival of any language film industry and thousands of its employees depend mostly on the success of low budget films. Chiding the way some of these young directors are treading with cinema, veteran Dasari Narayana Rao who always championed the cause of low budget films said, “The present generation should prove to the world that the Telugu filmmaker first makes the script ready and then goes to the floors. If any one of the young comes with a good script, I am prepared to produce for them.†One aspect the present generation the actors or the directors are forgetting is the importance of the producer. Most of them are treating the producer as a mere cash bag carrier. To quote Dasari, “There must be a bonding between the producer and director. It pains to hear that the producer has become just a cashier today. Instead of committing to pamphlet journalism, the media print as well as television should also come up with proper analysis and criticism for the growth of the industry. When they write or say that every film is a super hit then why the film industry is in dole drums? Some crib about other language directors entering into the Telugu industry. Instead we should think why they are getting the opportunities here and improve ourselves. Again some crib about spiraling costs of production. When actors who are not worth a million rupees for their job are being paid in crores, who should be blamed? A director can create any number of actors.†A basic mantra buried under star domination.
Sekhar Kammula and Krishnavamsy proved with Happy Days and Chandamama respectively,that with rank newcomers and not so established stars, movie wonders can be created. Both the films are big hits and Happy Days made under a four cr. budget and is expected to gross over Rs. 20 cr.
Whatever said and done, Cinema is still a staple diet for many in A P. The industry offers some exciting fare for them in the new year with Balakrishna’s Okka Magaadu directed by the much successful Y.V.S. Chowdhary and also Simran’s comeback film, Dil Raju’s Premikudu with Allu Arjun, Babu Rao’s Ontari with Gopichand-Bhavana and Nagarjuna, Chiranjeevi and Venkatesh’s next ventures to roll in January.
Ragava Larencce, who has handled story, screenplay, choreography, music and direction, besides playing an important role in Telugu superstar Nagarjuna starrer ‘Don’, is planning to do the same magic in Tamil as well. It is said that he would rope in a leading hero in the lead role.
Dance masters becoming directors has become a trend. In Bollywood choreographer Farah Khan made her successful attempt into direction. In south, Larencce did the same in 2004 with his ‘Mass’ in Telugu, while Prabhu Deva wielded the megaphone for ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ (Telugu) in 2005. His brother Raju Sundaram is now all set to direct Ajith.
Though both dance masters turned directors - Prabhu Deva and Larencce – have been successful in their new role, the initial response for Larencce’s latest movie featuring Nagarjuna is not encouraging.
Larencce, unperturbed by the results, is raring to go. The announcement of his venture in the Tamil is expected to be made soon. In the venture, it is said, he would handle story, screenplay, choreography, music and direction, besides playing an important role.
Don, the much hyped movie of Nag, didn’t release on its scheduled date (Dec 20), but for in Nizam area. At several release centers in the ceded and Nellore district, fans erected huge cutouts of Nag and awaited its release, by resorting to sleepless night on the eve of the release. But, the word came from the exibitors that the prints had not been despatched from Hyderabad, citing the reason that Don was releasing with a deficit budget, “as the producer has not cleared the amounts to the Lab.”
Meanwhile, heavy rains in Chittoor and Nellore districts marred the pre-release hungama. Due to heavy gales and downpour, most of the display material such as banners and vinyles were damaged.
Three theatres were readied in Tirupati for the show, which was supposed to have started early. The enthusiasm (expecting the crowds of Vaikunta Ekadasi night-out) among the exibitors vanished when it was known that Don would not release today.
 |
|
 |
|
|
Nagarjuna’s much awited Don to be released on December 20 worldwide. Don directed by Raghava Lawrence and produced by M.L. Kumar Choudary on the banner of Sri Keerthi Creations with Akkineni Nagarjuna and Anushka in the lead will be releasing on December 20, 2007. Raghava Lawrence was introduced as director by Nagarjuna through ‘Mass’ and he is making his debut as music director through this film. Nagarjuna says ‘The Don has nothing to do with mafia, but it is a Robin Hood kind of character. The story, however, was woven around a fight between the Mumbai mafia don and Hyderabad mafia don. Lawrence had scripted a fantastic screenplay and the movement of the story would be quite thrilling.
Lawrence, who plays the brother of the Don, will be killed at a crucial juncture in the film. This comes as the carry forward of Mass Hangover, in which hero Nag’s friend (Sunil) gets killed by the villains. This is the reliable news obtained by sources of FC. Nag himself said that the film has no story, but a good number of stylish stunts and stylized violence. The film is set for release on December 20th.
Nagarjuna’s Don Music is out now! Don attracted everyone for a special reason as Choreographer Lawrence turned a music composer with this film.
So how is his maiden venture as music director? ‘Not great, nothing special’ in one word ‘disappointing’. Especially the songs targeted to mass audience from the ‘Mass’ director are sounding just like Tamil dubbed songs. Only two songs ‘Inta andanga unnave…’, ‘Neekai nenu…’ stands out in the album and surprisingly both these songs are melodies. Lawrence who is known for his mass appeal as a choreographer scores good marks with these soothing melody numbers and fails utterly with ‘Suriyana suriyana…’ and ‘Dada puttistaa’! The other beat oriented song ‘Mudde pettu…’ is just average. ‘Yedo undile…’ is a peppy dance number which appeals to the youth. In these not a single song possesses good lyrical values. Lawrence’s earlier films as a director too didn’t had good music. Style and Muni films music is really pain staking to the ears and only Nag’s Mass songs up to some extent are ok. This shows his taste of music and no wonder when he himself got into the shoes of a music composer he failed miserably. But he got the knack of canning the songs very well and one could hope Don Songs might look better on screen. For the moment the experiment of trying Lawrence in a new avatar is only getting negative results.