Venkatesh, Mahesh Babu to act together

Here's a lowdown of what's happening in the Telugu film industry.

Seethamma Vakitlo Sirimalle Chettu (SVSC) will see superstars Venkatesh and Mahesh Babu acting together. The credit for this casting coup should go to producer Dil Raju and director Srikkanth Addala (of Kotha Bangaru Lokam fame).

It is said that the superstars play brothers in the film. Neither actor was present for the mahurat on Vijayadasami day (October 6), as they were busy with their current projects -- Venkatesh is shooting for Ganga, the Bodyguard and Mahesh for The Businessman.

D Suresh Babu, Shyam Prasad Reddy, V V Vinayak and S S Rajamouli attended the mahurat. In the formal puja organised by Dil Raju, Dasari Narayan Rao sounded the clap and K Raghavendra switched on the camera.

Venkatesh will start shooting for SVSC next month though Mahesh is expected to be on the sets only in January, after the completion of The Businessman.

After the critically acclaimed Prasthanam, Devakatta has moved on to Autonagar Surya, the mahurat of which was also held on October 6. Starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha in the lead roles, this film is set in Vijayawada. The others in the cast are Brahmanandam, Saikumar, Jayaprakash Reddy, M S Narayana, Raghubabu, Brahmaji, Ajay, Srinivas Reddy and Jeeva.

Autonagar Surya is produced by Atchi Reddy under the Max India banner with RR Movie Makers presenting it.

The producer gave the first clap for the first shot filmed on Chaitanya and Samantha, while Ramesh Puppala handled the camera. Anoop Reubens composes music for this film.

Some years ago, Gopichand did a film called Okkadunnadu with director Chandrasekhar Yeleti. Now, after he completes his current project Mogudu, directed by Krishnavamsi, the hero is all set to work with Yeleti in his new, as yet-untitled, film.

Yeleti's previous venture, Prayanam (which was set in an airport) did pretty well.