'Leader’ is fetching its dividends for everyone involved in the film. We are aware of the hero Rana going great guns with offers from Bollywood and Tollywood. Now, it’s the turn of the heroine. This Sekhar Kammula find, Priya Anand is already doing a film ‘Rama Rama Krishna Krishna’ with Ram and now she has been signed for a bilingual film opposite Siddharth which will be directed by Jayendra. There are two producers for this film, one being Aghal Films’ C Srikanth and the other Satyam Cinemas’ Kiran Reddy. Ragalahari

Tollywood's young energetic hero Siddharth’s Bava, directed by debutant Ram Babu and produced by M.L. Kumar Chowdary under the banner of Sri Keerthi Combines, is progressing at a brisk pace in Palakollu. The current schedule will continue till April 4.

A complete family entertainer set in a village backdrop, Bava has Siddharth playing a naughty Krishna, while National award winning actor Dr. Rajendra Prasad appears as Siddharth’s father. Praneetha is the heroine. Chakri composes music. Aravind Krishna handles cinematography.

Dialogues are by Chintapalli Ramana and editing by Gautham Raju. Bava is presented by Sandeep.

Siddharth, the talented young hero who even learnt Telugu to dub his own voice for Telugu films, now went a step ahead by learning the Godavari accent for the role he is playing in his latest film ‘Bava’. A few prominent scenes were canned at Rajolu recently and presently the shooting is progressing at Palakollu. Dr Rajendra Prasad is essaying a very important role. ML Padma Kumar Chowdary is producing ‘Bava’ under Sri Keerthi Combines banner introducing Rambabu as director and Praneetha as heroine. The dialogues are by Chintapalli Ramana, Aravind Krishna handles the camera while the musical scores are by Chakri. ‘Bava’ will be presented by Sandeep.

US studio giant Disney is making its first foray into south Indian cinema as part of plans to capture the country's largest movie market, the company announced Thursday.

The firm said its Telugu-language film, which will also be dubbed into Tamil, would be its "first, locally-developed studio project aimed specifically at southern audiences".

Billed as an "epic fantasy adventure," the as-yet unnamed film features top actors such as Siddharth Narayan and Shruti Haasan and is due out in January 2011.

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K. Raghavendra Rao, who has directed and produced more than 125 films, is producer while the writer-director is Prakash Rao Kovelamudi, who has more than 150 south Indian films to his credit.

Walt Disney India's managing director Mahesh Samat said the project would build the firm's family entertainment brand.

Disney first started operations in India in 2004, as Hollywood began looking to emerging markets such as India, China and Russia to boost growth.

It has also secured a foothold in India's expanding cable and satellite television market through its children's outlets like the Disney Channel and Hungama TV.

In 2008, Disney released "Roadside Romeo", its first, full-length animation feature using local animators and stars from India's Hindi-language film industry Bollywood.

South Indian cinema - Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada language films - is India's largest film-producing region, global consultants Ernst and Young said in a report published last year.

The sector accounted for more than three-quarters of the total Indian film industry revenue and the market is estimated to be worth some 17.3 billion rupees (380 million dollars).