The latest buzz in Telugu cinema news is that Akhil Akkineni is getting excellent reviews from all the quarters for his powerful appearance in the movie Manam. This was no mean feat as in spite of the presence and strong performances of Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya, he managed to stand apart through some rock solid performance which helped in raising the tempo of the film and increasing the hunger and desire of the fans who are eagerly awaiting for a full length of his movie.
Rumors
There were numerous speculations in the industry stating that Trivikram, Puri Jagannadh or Vikram Kumar might be directing this new film but sources close to the Annapurna Studios revealed that Nagarjuna himself wants none other than Deva Katta to direct Akhil Akkineni. Deva Katta made an impressive directorial debut with Vennela and later on made critically acclaimed and appreciated Prasthanam. His latest direction, Autonagar Surya is yet to be released but Nagarjuna is strongly confident about his abilities and is sure of his success.
Strategy
Unlike the typical general strategy of producers to distribute large number of prints to screens together in order to capture the opening weekend ticket sales, Manam adopted a different strategy and opened with limited number of screens and after that started to scale it up with extra screens after reading the pulse of the audience and theatre buzz truly built and reached a new height.
The demand for tickets for Manam has been growing consistently across all areas, mostly due to the word of mouth and positive reviews from media and industry critics. According to screen owners the demand from the small centers is also high and the makers of the film have decided to release more prints this week in order to cater to the movie audience demand to watch Manam.
Ticket sales reached a new record of 20% hike even on Monday, something very uncommon in recent times. The movie has been released in over 600 screens and additional 20% more screens would be increased for the week ahead.The movie is directed by Vikram and stars legendary actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Nagarjuna and Naga Chaitanya. The film was released to packed houses in India as well as in the US.
The Future
Akhil has made his debut, but his fans are eagerly awaiting for his first full length movie which is also more or less finalized.
Nagarjuna has stated many times that he will think about Akhil’s debut only after ‘Manam’ release. His strategy of introducing the young actor in a multi starrer family drama was a good move which has given him a base to work on.With the release of Manam, plans are already on in the Annapurna studios to launch the young actor under the direction of Deva Katta. This would be Akhil’s debut movie as a hero. In fact Deva Katta has already impressed Nagarjuna with a good commercial story and is planning to fit the same in a two hours story line. On receiving the final nod, the work will start and hopefully the industry will get a good movie with a new star.