Mahesh Babu’s next Maharshi, directed by Vamsi Paidipally, is progressing fast and will be wrapped soon. Earlier, the plan was to release the film for Sankranthi this year but due to some legal issues the release date was shifted to April 9 to cash in on the Ugadi weekend. Now we hear that the makers have pushed the film to the last week of April citing a sentiment that some of Mahesh Babu's biggest hits such as Pokiri and Bharat Ane Nenu became hits after getting released during that period.

Mahesh Babu’s last outing, Bharat Ane Nenu, released in April end last year and turned out to be a smash hit. It became the third highest grossing Telugu movie of all time. The film was directed by Koratala Siva and featured the star as the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. This is the first time that the star portrayed a CM in his acting career.

The star’s Pokiri not only obliterated all existing box office records, it also catapulted him to super stardom. The film set new box office records in Tollywood giving Mahesh the much-vaunted ‘superstar’ tag, and his stardom has risen to peaks making him a much bigger star than he was.

Recently, shooting for Maharshi took place at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, where a village set was built to can some all-important portions. The team will soon be moving on to Pollachi, near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, where some other scenes will be shot. Picturesque locations have been earmarked for this schedule.

Maharshi is bankrolled jointly by Dil Raju, Ashwini Dutt and PVP. It is a high budget project with a major portion of it being shot in the United States. The film is about three friends, played by Mahesh Babu, Allari Naresh and Pooja Hegde. It also has veteran actor Jayapradha playing a pivotal role.

(Content provided by Digital Native)