New Delhi (PTI): Actor Ravi Teja on Sunday announced that his next film is titled "Mr Bachchan" after his favourite megastar Amitabh Bachchan.
Directed by Harish Shankar, the tagline of the upcoming Telugu movie is "Naam Tho Suna Hoga (You must have heard the name)".
Also starring Bhagyashri Borse, "Mr Bachchan" is backed by People Media Factory, Panorama Studios and T-Series.
Ravi Teja shared the film announcement on his official X page.
"#MrBachchan Naam tho suna hoga. Honoured to play the character with the name of my favourite @SrBachchan saab @harish2you @peoplemediafcy @TSeries," the actor wrote.
The makers also released the first look of the film in which Ravi Teja can be seen riding a scooter with shades on and a haircut resembling Bachchan from his 1970s films. A silhouette of the screen icon's face and a crowd standing in front of a cinema hall called 'Natraj' is embossed as the background of the poster.
Actor Ajay Devgn also shared the poster of the film and captioned it as: "This is going to be (fire emoji)."
Shankar thanked Devgn for his support.
"Thank you So much Ajay Sir @ajaydevgn this is more than a surprise for us . What a great day to start a film with your wishes . Thanks a lot," the filmmaker wrote.
"Mr Bachchan" is Ravi Teja and Shankar's third collaboration after "Shock" (2006) and "Mirapakay" (2011).
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New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
