Ramcharan Teja

On Wednesday (27 March 2013) when Telugu cinema’s biggest star Ramcharan Teja turned 28, his wife Upasana Kamineni who owns the Apollo chain of hospitals, organized a surprise birthday party in Dubai. Ram had no choice but to follow his wife blindly.

<strong>Ramcharan Teja: </strong> “It’s such a cowardly act. I am told most of the victims were school kids. My heart reaches out to them. From now on I’d definitely think twice before allowing any of my loved ones to go to public places ,no matter what the occasion. Today we need to worry not just about an act of terrorism but our country becoming accustomed to such attacks. That’s scary.”

Shooting of some key action sequences featuring Priyanka Chopra and Ramcharan Teja for Apoorva Lakhia’s <em>Zanjeer</em> came to a grinding halt in Madh Island, Mumbai on Saturday night when the crew had a swarm of unexpected visitors. They were none other than the Andhra fishermen fans of Ramcharan Teja who quickly got to know that he was shooting in the vicinity.

Remember the big dramatic sequence in Prakash Mehra’s Zanjeer where the Big B playing the scowling ireful cop Vijay drags Jaya bhaduri, the reluctant eyewitness for the villain Teja’s crime, into the hospital to show her first-hand the mayhem that he has caused? This week director Apoorva Lakhia shot that sequence with Ramcharan Teja and Priyanka Chopra for the neo-<em>Zanjeer</em>. And the venue of the shooting was Ramcharan’s wife Upasana Kamineni’s hospital the massive pride of Hyderabad, the Apollo.

The presence of Priyanka Chopra in Hyderabad and that too to shoot a Telugu film with Ramcharan Teja, has created a mammoth crowd-interest in the city. On Friday evening when Priyanka arrived in the city to shoot for Apoorva Lakhia’s Hindi-Telugu bi-lingual <em>Zanjeer</em>, 3000 youngsters gathered at her hotel (The Park Hotel). Says our eyewitness, “Friday evening is pub and disco time for youngsters in Hyderabad. Not this weekend. As soon as they heard of Priyanka’s arrival they headed towards her hotel.”

Salman is no longer just the spin-doctor on his own projects. Known to be a very active and dominant force behind his own projects Salman has now taken charge of Ramcharan Teja’s Bollywood debut. Recently, Salman had a meeting at his residence with Ramcharan Teja and the Zanjeer director Apoorva Lakhia where he suggested some radical changes in the Zanjeer remake, including the way Priyanka Chopra’s character was to be packaged and portrayed.