Home > Gallery > Events > Ashok Opening Function Ashok Opening Function The muhurat of NTR's latest flick 'Ashok' in the direction of Surender Reddy (of Atanokkade fame) was held at Annapurna Studios on the morning of 1st September, 2005 amidst much fanfare. Valluripalli Ramesh produces this film under the banner of Maharshi Cinema. Sameera Reddy is paired opposite NTR. Ex-CM Chandrababu Naidu was invited as the chief guest, while NBK and Venkatesh were invited as special guests. Chandrababu Naidu sounded the clapper-board for the first shot, which was filmed on NTR. Venkatesh switched on the camera, while Nandamuri Balakrishna directed the first shot. The muhurat dialogue for this film is as follows - "Chinna Chinna debbalaku bayapadanu. Okasari kindapaddaa.. vandasarlu paiki lestanu." Later, a press meet was arranged by the unit. Surender Reddy, Valluripalli Ramesh, Vakkantham Vamsy and Senthil attended this meet. Surender Reddy said, "Even though I made my debut with Atanokkade, I am treating this as my first film. Vakkantham Vamsy came up with a good story. We worked on the story for four months. Ashok has all the necessary ingredients and merits to appeal to the masses. I will try my best to present NTR in a new angle. Regular shooting would start from October 1st." Valluripalli Ramesh said, "I produced five films so far. This is my sixth film. All the films I produced earlier were small budgeted films. So, everyone is of the opinion that I cannot do big budget movies, but their opinion is wrong. I spend money based on the potential of the film. I am not deterred by these minor issues, as I have NTR's confidence behind me. I am of the opinion that only Surender could do proper justice to the subject." Vakkantham Vamsy said, "I am lucky to get this offer at this stage of my career. This is not a story made for NTR. Once I was ready with the story, most of my friends suggested his name as they felt that he alone could do justice to the role. I approached him and he immediately okayed it." Senthil said, "I have already worked for Aithe, Sye and Chatrapati. This is my fourth film. I immediately okayed the offer as I was impressed by the taking style of Surender Reddy in Atanokkade. I hope the film does well and makes a good name"