Tuesday Aug 09 2011, Hyderabad

The 'Prince' celebrates his Birthday

Some say he is the Shah Rukh Khan of the South for the sheer energy he brings to his screen persona. Others equate him to Aamir Khan for his choosy ways that resulted in only 15 releases in more than a decade. Still others swear by his handsome looks that remind them of Salman Khan. While fans may differ on their 'Khan-equation", there is consensus that Mahesh Babu is the ultimate superstar of Tollywood.

In fact, even the Bollywood Badshah had once commented on television that he actually adored the Telugu star for his choice of movies and the intensity with which he tackles them. The 'Prince' of Telugu Cinema, who is celebrating his 37th birthday today, has at least two interesting releases lined up.

The first of these is slated for release during the Eid Holidays. Titled 'Dookudu', the movie is an action thriller directed by SriniVaitla, whose last two releases had Nagarjuna (King) and Victory Venkatesh (NamoVenkatesa). The movie has been shot in foreign locales and has Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Abhimanyu Singh playing major roles.

The second one is "The Businessman", co-authored and directed by PuriJagannath, who has also announced a Bollywood version with AbhishekBachchan in the lead. The actor began shooting for the film recently after a Mahurat shot picturised between him and leading lady KajalAggarwal in July. The movie comes with a punchline "Guns Don't Need Agreements" and is being touted as an out-and-out action flick.

Mahesh Babu stuck to the one-film-per-year formula for a substantial part of his career and had only a sole release in 2001 (Murari), 2005 (Athadu) and 2007 (Athithi)He had no release for the next two years, something unheard of in a film industry where actors fall over each other to remain in public memory

For an actor who debuted at the age of seven alongside his father (actor Krishna) and appeared in nine films between 1979 and 1990, the ride has been one of the smoothest everHis debut as an adult in 'Raja Kumarudu' (1999) brought him the Nandi Award for best male debut while also setting the cash registers ringing