Prabhas has now become a household name not just in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana but throughout India after the raging and record shattering success of SS Rajmouli directed Baahubali: The Beginning and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. And it is no wonder that his upcoming movie would be released in Hindi along with Telugu and Tamil. The movie has been named as Saaho and is being directed by Sujeeth with a budget of Rs. 200 million under the banner of UV Creations.
The movie is being simultaneously shot in three languages, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. Shraddha Kapoor is the lead actress. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff, Mandira Bedi and Chunky Pandey have also been roped in to play major roles in the movie. Mandira Bedi has admitted that she is one of the two major antagonists in the movie. Though the entire cast is tight lipped about the genre of the movie, the buzz around is that it is either a reincarnation based movie or includes time travel in the story. This conclusion was reached based on the look of Prabhas in the poster where he flaunts an urban look while the people on the set of the movie admitted that it was a pre independence era shoot.
2017 has to be one of the two best professional years for Prabhas as the sequel for the blockbuster Baahubali: The Beginning was released. Baahubali: The Conclusion became the first ever Indian movie to gross over INR 1000 crore in all languages in mere 10 days. It is also the second highest grossing Indian movie till date. Prabhas is also the only South Indian actor to have his wax statue in Madame Tussaud’s wax museum! Shraddha Kapoor had a decent 2017 with 3 releases but it was Haseena Parkar which pushed the envelope for her. It was the first time that she was the main protagonist of a movie but was let down by a shallow script despite her stellar acting.
3. Parmanu – The Story of Pokhran
Parmanu is an upcoming edge of the seat thriller action movie featuring John Abraham in the leading role. He is rumoured to be playing the role of an army man. Diana Penty stars opposite him. Boman Irani has a major role in the movie as well. The movie is based on the nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by the Indian Army at Pokhran in 1998 during the Prime Ministership of Atal Behari Vajpayee. It has been helmed by Abhishek Sharma of the ‘Tere Bin Laden’ fame. The script was written by Saiwyn Quardas who had also written the scripts for Mary Kom and Neerja. Parmanu is being produced under the banners of Zee Studio, JA Entertainment and KriArj Entertainment. The movie was scheduled to be released on 8th December but was then pushed back due to its clash at the box office with Padmavati, which ironically did not end up releasing at all. It is now scheduled to be released on 23rd February, 2018.
John Abraham had a quiet 2017 with no release throughout the year as he was working on Parmanu – the story of Pokhran. He has managed to create a niche for himself in the edge of the seat thriller genre playing an army guy or a cop. And with years and movies, he has actually gotten quite good at the roles that he has been portraying. He had 4 releases in 2016 with Dishoom, Wazir, Rocky Handsome and Force 2. He hit the bull’s eye with Force 2 as it was a runaway commercial success. Rocky Handsome too was a decent movie loosely based on the Hollywood flick, John Wick.
Diana Penty on the other hand has been very choosy when it comes to the movies she takes up. She has had just 2 releases till date. Her first movie, Cocktail was a runaway success. After a 3 year hiatus, she returned with ‘Happy Bhaag Jaayegi’ in 2016 which performed decently at the box office. It would be interesting to see if her 3rd movie, Parmanu – the story of Pokhran does as well as her first.