Politics makes rivals of Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan

March 13, 2014

chiru-pawan_stillsK Chiranjeevi and his brother K Pawan Kalyan, ‘Mega Star’ and ‘Power Star’ in the Telugu film industry, are no longer on talking terms,the politics of a divided state having caused a rift between them. Chiranjeevi, the original superstar who launched the Praja Rajyam Party in 2009 but merged it with the Congress in 2011, is angry with younger brother Kalyan, who is the current rage and who plans to launch a new party.

Pawan Kalyan is believed to be set to launch his Jana Sena Friday, a move that has upset Chiranjeevi, who has sworn his loyalty to the Congress. Chiranjeevi, the union tourism minister, was apparently unaware of his brother’s plans until someone in the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee told him about Pawan Kalyan’s feelers to some political leaders in the coastal districts.

The feud surfaced in public during the preview of the debut film of K Varun Tej, their nephew. He is the son of K Naga Babu, a veteran actor of more than 50 films, and a brother elder to both actors.

“Chiranjeevi wanted a word with Pawan in the presence of their elder brother, who commands the respect of the family. In fact, Chiranjeevi had arrived from New Delhi that morning for this. Pawan Kalyan arrived at the venue before Chiranjeevi, congratulated his nephew and left. On his arrival, Chiranjeevi asked about Pawan and was disappointed to learn he had already left,’’ a source said.

Pawan is known to be a recluse but is mobbed by fans whenever he makes a public appearance. The rush at his first-day first-shows is frequently likened to a stampede, and his films’ music release functions are sold out weeks in advance, even though he has acted in only 19 films since he became an actor 20 years ago.

It is believed that things started going wrong between the brothers three years ago when Chiranjeevi decided to merge his party with the Congress.

“Pawan opposed Chiranjeevi’s decision. He felt that the platform and the values on which the PRP was launched —anti-corruption and social justice — would be betrayed if it merged with Congress. Moreover, he felt that if the PRP could garner 16 to 18 per cent of the vote and 18 assembly seats even in 2009, despite the powerful presence of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, it was only a matter of time before PRP could emerge stronger,” the source said. Since the February 2011 merger, Pawan Kalyan, 42, is said to have rarely spoken to Chiranjeevi.

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May 24,2020

Los Angeles, May 24: Filmmaker Frank Marshall, one of the producers behind Jurassic World: Dominion, says the forthcoming film is not a conclusion of the franchise.

Colin Trevorrow, who rebooted Steven Spielberg's blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise with 2015's Jurassic World, is back on the director's chair after sitting out on second movie Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).

Asked about the upcoming movie, Marshall told Collider: "It's the start of a new era."

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are coming back for the third film, which will also feature original stars of 1993's Jurassic Park -- Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill.

The producer also revealed how he sees the film franchise extending into the future.

"The dinosaurs are now on the mainland amongst us, and they will be for quite some time, I hope," Marshall said.

The film was three weeks into production when it was shut down over coronavirus concerns, but the producer said the team has the sets built in London and will be "back in business" once they have guidelines from the British government.

Dominion is still slated to be released on its scheduled date of June 11, 2021.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Mar 11: The shooting of Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai has been completed, and the film will now release on schedule.

If one recalls, the film went on the floors in the first week of November 2019 and was supposed to be Salman’s fastest completed film. However, the movie faced a variety of roadblocks — It was first to be wrapped in the first week of February, “But Salman went off to his Panvel farmhouse after the release of Dabangg 3 and spent a while there ushering in his birthday,” a source reveals.

“Then, the extension of the show Bigg Boss 13 by five weeks also turned out to be another speed breaker. Then, Salman wanted to make sure that the film was being made as good as what his audiences wanted on Eid. He made sure that his director Prabhudeva got what he wanted from the performers and didn’t want to rush him.

"Additionally, the Azerbaijan schedule of the film also got cancelled as Salman did not want to take any chances with the cast and crew with the lurking Covid 19, and rescheduled the shoot in India. This is now complete, barring any patchwork that might emerge later,” our source adds.

Radhe is slated to be an Eid release, which will clash with Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb.

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News Network
June 9,2020

New Delhi, Jun 9: Multiplex operator PVR on Monday said it has cut salary across various levels, laid off employees and deferred increments during the lockdown to mitigate adverse impact of COVID-19 on the business.

The company said at present it is not generating any revenue from exhibition business and related activities as cinemas across the country are shut following the directions from the regulatory authorities.

According to the company, closure of screens during the lockdown will have a significant negative impact on profitability and liquidity.

PVR has taken measures to reduce its personnel cost, including salary cuts across various levels in the organisation during the lockdown along with "reduction in headcount by way of layoffs/retrenchment" to mitigate the adverse impact of COVID-19 on the business.

Moreover, the board of the company, in its meeting held on Monday has also approved plan to raise Rs 300 crore through rights issue.

"Since Cinema Exhibition is the only business segment, company is currently not generating any revenue from admissions, food and beverage sales or other revenue and cash flow from operations," said PVR in an update.

Beginning from March 11, PVR started closing its screens in accordance with the order passed by various regulatory authorities and within a few days most of our cinemas across the country were shut down, it added.

The company will continue to incur committed cash outflows, including employee salary pay-outs, other overheads as well as payments for older working capital.

"This has and will have a significant negative impact on profitability and liquidity during lockdown and even thereafter till business comes to normalcy," it added.

Further, once the cinemas are re-opened, we may not be able to run our cinemas at normal capacity utilisation levels on account of social distancing measures that cinemas may be required to follow as well as health concerns that the patrons may have, the multiplex operator said.

"On account of this, our revenue and cash flow generation may be impeded even once we are allowed to restart operations," it added.

The company has also deferred decision on on increments to reduce its cost, it added.

PVR has also written to developers for waiving rental and CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges for the lockdown period.

It is in discussion with developers for reducing rentals post re-opening and has invoked force majeure clause in its agreements with them.

Besides, the company has raised additional borrowings from existing bankers to shore up liquidity.

"As of March 31, 2020 the company had cash and bank balance of Rs 316 crore. As on June 7, 2020 cash and bank balance is Rs 227 crore (including undrawn bank lines)," it added.

Over reopening of theatres, PVR said that the government has come out with a phase-wise schedule.

In these guidelines cinema halls have been kept in the third phase of re-opening, where dates will be decided based on assessment of the situation.

"We are in continuous engagement with all regulatory authorities and hope to receive the necessary permissions for restarting opening in the near future," it added.

Currently PVR operates 845 screens in 176 properties in 71 cities.

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