Hit hero of the year: Venkatesh

Debut Hero of the year : Ram Charan

Busy heroes of the year: 'Allari' Naresh, Shivaji

Only one hero who gave two hits (Aaduvaari Maatalaku Arthaale Verule...! and Tulasi in this year of 2007 is Venkatesh. Thanks to the profits he gave to the distributors and producers too, he is thus chosen as the hero of the year. His next project is going to be Chintakalayala Ravi under the direction of Yogi.

Let us see how other heroes fared this year.

Chiranjeevi: This year he had the biggest flop in his career with Shankar Dada Zindabad. Misfortune followed into his rea l life also. He's now working for his 149th fi lm. Gunasekhar or Krissnavamsi was expected to do it at first, but then Puri or V.V. Vinayak is possib ly going to wie ld the megaphone for the megastar instead. Gunasekhar and Krissnavamsi are now ru l ed out because they have their own projects with others now.

Balakrishna: His Maharadhi was flop and at present he just completed Okka Magaadu which has high expectations, making him the on ly one among the top four to test his luck at the time of genera l ly profitab le Sankranthi season. He's right now working on Ranga...Panduranga in which he p l ays a dua l ro l e.

Nagarjuna: Nag, after taking a 15-month break, came with Don towards the end of the year. People expected a lot out of him as the hero of the  film, but it came as a distasteful surprise to the audience that Lawrence dominated his role comp lete ly, paving way to a miserab l e f lop in the hero's career. At present, he is  doing a brief yet important role in Krishnarjuna.

Jr. NTR: His Yamadonga created sensation and at present he is doing Kantri with Meher Ramesh and another is coming up with Mahadev, an assistant of director S.S. Rajamouli.

Mahesh Babu: Athidi created record openings, but the initia l rush died soon as the predictable story and excessive violence became a minus for the film. Though he has at least ten projects to choose from, he's taking his own sweet time to pick up his next project from among them.

Pawan Kalyan: He didn't have any releases in 2007 either, like in the past.  He has been in news for different reasons though. His Jalsa with Trivikram is expected to hit the screens in March of 2008.

Raviteja: Dubai Seenu was above average and gave profits to his producers. At present, his Krishna with V.V. Vinayak is scheduled for Sankranthi release.

Gopichand: Okkadunnadu was average at the BO while his Lakshyam hit the target and became the highest grosser among his films. At present, he is completing the film Ontari for Pokuri Baburao and will start a film with a newcomer soon.

Allu Arjun: His Desamuduru was a huge hit that was delivered as the first film of 2007 but he has no film following it. His next film is a Bhaskar- Dil Raju combo, which will possib ly be titled Vaaradhi. 

Vishnu finally had a hit with the Srinu Vaitla's Dhee. He is presently coming up with Krishnarjuna in the direction of P. Vasu.

The mega heir Ram Charan got a lot of name with Chiruta though the film itself was not successful. He has in fact got record-breaking openings for a newcomer, thus being the debutant hero of the year.

Heart-throb Siddharth has not played his Aata well. At present, he is doing Dolly's debut film and another Hindi film too.

Prabhas has two releases this year, Yogi and Munna, but both of them ended up as duds. Yogi at least made a little money compared to Munna. At present, he is doing Bujjigadu - Made in Chennai with Puri Jagannath.

Jagapathi babu has only release this year. He appeared in a special role in Lakshyam. He is coming up with Swagatham in new year.

Navdeep had two releases too, Poramboku and Chandamama. While Chandamama was an average fare at the BO, Poramboku was a disaster. His Tamil film Nenjil jil jil was dubbed but was not a hit, understandably.

Udaykiran's comeback film Viyyaala Vaari Kayyaalu was a flop. His Lakshmiputrudu is awaiting release. He's signed for another film too. Tarun's Nava Vasantham was not really a fresh spring breeze in his career. He's  shooting for a film with director K. Vijaybhaskar now. Siva Balaji's Pagele Vennela didn't shine any light on his career, but his Chandamama brought some moonlight into the dark career anyway. At present, he is still waiting for a good project. Bharath, after passing his 10th class last year, tried some new notebooks this year, but failed due to wrong steps. He is coming up with Sawal under the direction of B. Jaya.