The story of Mahesh Babu's "Srimanthudu", which is set to release on 7 August, has been leaked on the net just a day before its release and the outline of the script is apparently similar to Balakrishna's "Janani Janmabhoomi"

"Srimanthudu" is family drama film with all the masala elements to woo mass audience. Besides direction, Koratala Siva has also written the story for the movie, which is about a millionaire businessman, who does not want to live under his father's shadow. How he carves a niche for himself will form the crux of the story.

Of late, some people in the industry are busy drawing comparisons between the stories of "Srimanthudu" and "Janani Janmabhoomi" as the outline story of both look similar to each other. It is reported that the characterisation of heroes and the themes of both the films are the same.

Like Balakrishna in "Janani Janmabhoomi", Mahesh Babu is an irresponsible guy in "Srimanthudu". The heroine played by Shruti Haasan enlightens the hero, who later turns into a Samaritan for the people of a village. Like the Balayya starrer, the Koratala Siva-directed film is also based on the concept of 'giving back to the society'.

But Koratala Siva, who started his career as script and dialogue writer, is known for his writing. He is well aware of the stories of old movies and will most likely not copy the story of a hit movie like "Janani Janmabhoomi". The storyline of "Srimanthudu" may look similar, but the movie will be different from Balakrishna's film.

Made on a budget of around Rs 50 crore, "Srimanthudu" marks actor Mahesh Babu's venture in production, besides launching his own production house G Mahesh Babu Entertainment Pvt Ltd. The superstar has produced the film in collaboration with Y Naveen, Y Ravi Shankar and CV Mohan.

Shruti Haasan has played the female lead in "Srimanthudu", which features Jagapati Babu, Rajendra Prasad, Sukanya, Brahmanandam, Sivaji Raja, Aamani, Angana Roy, Sanam Shetty, Tejaswi Madivada, Sampath Raj and Mukesh Rishi. The film, which has Devi Sri Prasad's music and R Madhi's cinematography, is slated to release in theatres on 7 August.