February 23, 2008
Hyderabad

The shooting of Manoj’s latest film Nenu Meeku Telusa? was started on 15th of this month at a set erected in Mumtaj House at Madhapur. Debutant director Ajay Sastri is shooting a vital scene of the film when idlebrain.com entered the sets to get our visitors something exclusive -

About the set:
This set is the house of Aditya, played by Manchu Manoj. Art director Ravinder got a theme to the house by keeping the walls in white and the furniture mostly in orange color (sofa set in black). The walls sports cool posters of Manoj and a special Scarface poster of a dollar bill in which ‘Tony Montana’ signs on it under ‘I trust me’ caption. The vital tape recorder is placed near the bed and a note that goes like ‘orey item…’ is placed in front of the bed so that the hero could read it as soon as he wakes up.

The scene:
It is a vital scene in the film and the director has strictly prohibited me from sharing the content as it reveals some finer aspects of the story. All I can say that the scene involved the hero and two heroines.

Casting coup:
Getting one of the finest looking heroines from Mumbai is a tough task for any Telugu film director. But Ajay Sastri pulled a casting coup by signing two of the finest looking babes like Riya Sen (daughter of Moon Moon Sen) and Sneha Ullal (bears uncanny resemblance to Aishwarya Rai). Lots of producers and directors tried for their dates in the past, but could not manage it as these girls were looking for good scripts to make their debut in south. Ajay Sastri convinced them with the story and they signed the project without even asking who the hero is.

Dedicated heroines:
The work started today at 8 am and ended at 1 am. And both the heroines did not complain. And it was Riya Sen who insisted that a shot to be taken again as she is not satisfied with her lip movement. Both the heroines uttered their own Telugu dialogues with a little bit of prompting from the writer.

Young team:
The team behind Nenu Meeku Telusa is young, energetic and have very good technical background. All the technical team of the film are either in late 20’s or early 30’s. The first time music director Achu (protégé of Keeravani) is hanging on the sets all the time and shares his music knowledge with Manoj. Director of photography Sunil Kumar Reddy is banking on this project to get him the right credit.

Read what the cast of Nenu Meeku Telusa has to say about the film:

Manoj Manchu (hero): Though I acted in three commercial films earlier, I consider Nenu Meeku Telusa as my debut film. I love acting in these kinds of films. The film is not a routine commercial film and there is lot of scope for histrionics. I want to prove myself with this film and create my own identity. Fortunately I have got very good and young team.

Sneha Ullal (heroine): I am already acting in a Telugu film in the direction of Karunakaran. That film is nearing completion. This is my second film in Telugu. It is the script that inspired me to sign this project. The entire team is amazing and I am enjoying my work here. I had problems picking Telugu dialogues up. But now I am getting used to it.

Riya Sen (heroine): This is my debut in Telugu. I had been approached by Telugu producers for the past 4 years and never accepted any project because I did not find the substance for my character in any of those films. This is the first Telugu script that impressed me. There is something for me in this film.

Ajay Sastri (director): I must say that I am impressed with the heroines. I anticipated lot of delay in work because I have two first timers in Telugu as heroines of my film. They made me realize on the sets how good they are at their profession. Manoj has been the driving force and pillar of support for this project to happen.

Ashok Raju (Executive producer): The current schedule ends by 29th of this month. The next schedule will take place at Sri Vidya Niketan college in Tirupati. The 3rd schedule will take place in a floor of AirTel building. We are planning to shoot the songs in April. Production work is going on smoothly as the young team is not minding working for a few extra hours to get the best output.

Manchu Lakshmi produces this film on Sri Lakshmi Prasanna Pictures banner. Incidentally, Nenu Meeku Telusa? is the 49th venture on this banner.

Nenu Meeku Telusa links:
Theatrical trailer
Ajay Sastri interview
NMT trailer creates ripples