As part of Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar’s Green India Challenge, an initiative to plant saplings to make India green, actor Samantha Akkineni had accepted the challenge from her father-in-law and actor Nagarjuna and they had together planted saplings and posted the pictures online. And now, actor Naga Chaitanya, Samantha’s husband, accepted the challenge from director Nandini Reddy and planted saplings.
Posting pics of him planting the saplings in his yard, Naga Chaitanya tweeted: “Thank you @nandureddy4u for nominating me! Here’s to a greener future... I nominate @Vikram_K_Kumar, @iamSushanthA, @ShivaNirvana and @Rakulpreet to keep this going! Thoughtful initiative by @MPsantoshtrs (sic).”
Thank you @nandureddy4u for nominating me ! Here’s to a greener future..I nominate @Vikram_K_Kumar @iamSushanthA @ShivaNirvana @Rakulpreet to keep this going ! Thoughtful initiative by @MPsantoshtrs .. #GreenIndiaChallenge #HaraHaiTohBharaHai pic.twitter.com/vFZie4hzOg
— chaitanya akkineni (@chay_akkineni) August 17, 2020
Naga Chaitanya then nominated his colleagues in the Telugu film industry, Vikram K Kumar, Shiva Nirvana, Sushanth and Rakul Preet Singh to take up the Green India Challenge. The actor shares a good rapport with Vikram K Kumar as he had starred in his directorial Manam while Shiva Nirvana had directed him in Majili. While Sushanth is the actor’s cousin, Rakul Preet Singh is his colleague in the film industry.
Initiated by Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar, the Green India Challenge prompts individuals to plant a sapling. Several actors have participated in the challenge so far, the long list including Baahubali star Prabhas, Sharwanand and many others.
On the work front, Naga Chaitanya was shooting for director Shekar Kammula’s Love Story until the lockdown was announced. Expectations on this Naga Chaitanya and Sai Pallavi starrer had been high ever since it was announced. Narayan Das K Narang and Puskur Ram Mohan Rao are bankrolling the project under their banner.
We hear that Love Story is a romantic tale of a boy and girl moving to the city from a village and what ensues further. Naga Chaitanya plays a Hyderabadi youngster and will be speaking the Telangana dialect, which is a first in his career. He underwent special training to get the accent perfect, we hear. Pavan, who studied at AR Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, is composing music for this flick. Love Story was planned as a April 2 release, but due to the lockdown the release has been postponed.
Naga Chaitanya’s last film to hit the marquee was Venky Mama, in which he shared screen space with his real-life paternal uncle Venkatesh. Raashi Khanna and Payal Rajput played the female leads opposite Naga Chaitanya and Venkatesh respectively. Venky Mama was bankrolled jointly by Suresh Productions and Blue Planet Entertainment on a very big budget with Bobby aka KS Ravindra wielding the megaphone. Anup Rubens composed the tunes while Prasad Murella cranked the camera.
Before the lockdown was announced, there were reports that Parasuram will be directing Naga Chaitanya in a movie. However, it now appears that the project fizzled out with the director showing a keen interest in directing Mahesh Babu. According to sources, the director got a green signal from Mahesh Babu following which he decided to drop the film he had prepared for Naga Chaitanya.
(Content provided by Digital Native)