Chiru declines, Ravi Teja accepts

Ravi Teja has given his nod to star in the revised version of ‘Auto Johnny’ which will be helmed by his favourite director Puri Jagannadh

At a time when everyone thought that ‘Auto Johnny’ was shelved indefinitely, Puri Jagannadh has sprung a surprise. After megastar Chiranjeevi did not give a heads up for the script (especially the second half), the director took the other route and decided to make the film with frequent collaborator Ravi Teja.

We’ve learnt that Puri has tweaked the plot, screenplay and characterisation of the protagonist to suit Ravi Teja’s body language. A source close to the actor confirms, “The discussions with Ravi Teja have been taking place for some time and when Puri recently met Ravi with the revised version, the actor felt that it’s an ideal script at this stage of his career and gave his consent straight away.”

The film will be a complete masala fare and will feature Ravi Teja in a complete new light. More discussions on enhancing the story are currently underway and the film might go on floors anytime from now.

This would be the sixth time that the actor and director would be coming together for a film. They last joined forces for the damp squib ‘Devudu Chesina Manushulu’.

With Ravi Teja’s next, to be helmed by debutant Chakri, yet to take off, it would be interesting to see whether ‘mass maharaja’ will first commence work for Puri’s film. Your guess is as good as ours!