One of the well known directors in Tollywood Puri Jagannadh is all set to launch his son Akash Puri as hero. The director had completed the shooting of the film Mehbooba, which stars his young son Akash in the lead. Touted to be a romantic entertainer, the film has been shot extensively in the northern parts of India. According to sources, the shooting of Mehbooba has been wrapped up recently and it has gone into the post production mode. Apart from donning the director’s robes, Puri Jagannath is also producing it under his own banner. Mangalore-based Neha Shetty has been roped in to play the leading lady in Mehbooba sharing the screen space with Akash Puri. It is a romantic film set in the year 1971 on the sidelines of the Indo – Pak war. Sandeep Chowta has composted music for this venture. The film is bankrolled by Puri's touring Talkies and co-produced by Puri Connects.
Sources add that the team is planning it as a summer release and are working towards hitting this deadline. However, the exact date of release is yet to be confirmed, given the fact that several high budget films are in the pipeline for release during that time.
Puri Jagannadh made his directorial debut with Badri in 2000 and has directed several blockbusters including Pokiri, Neninthe, Businessman etc. However, the director’s recent releases including Ism, Rogue and Paisa Vasool did not yield the desired results at the box office and he is under severe pressure to come up with a big hit to regain his status back in Tollywood.
Akash Puri, on the other hand, made his debut as a child artiste and was seen sharing the screen space with Prakash Raj in the bilingual Dhoni, which was released in Telugu and Tamil. He then went on to act in Andhra Pori in 2015.
(Content Provided by Digital Native)