for that.”
lowed me was tremendous. In a flash, I realized that my worries are wasted. When I had such huge fan fol- lowing, a couple of flops don’t matter,” C h i r a n j e e v i revealed emotion- ally. Similar stress is currently shaking Chiranjeevi a wee bit. And it showed.
Chiranjeevi with Meena yeggina in 2006
Chiranjeevi didn’t seem worried about new actors or even the success of Tamil dubbed movies in Telugu. The suc- cess of Krish , a Hindi movie dubbed into Telugu, also didn’t matter to him. “I encourage all kinds of people to come into Tollywood and invest more money. It’s good for us,” he elaborated complacently, secure in his position as the mega star. “I am beyond the stage of hits and flops, I can say that thankfully people have put me on a pedestal. With God’s blessing, I would like to maintain that trust and faith people have invested in me and do more to the society.” He seems to reiterate that thought in the evening when he was thrilled at the hundreds of people flocking to the stage to greet him after his speech. He seemed happy that many of them consisted of kids. “I am glad that so many children born and brought up in the US have rec- ognized me and love me. It’s a great honor. I think TV and Internet have made a dif- ference. It wasn’t like this ten years ago when I came to Chicago,” he said in an emotional tone. Whatever it is, flops or hits, blood bank or eye bank, Chiranjeevi has become a legend. The very fact that the President of India, Abdul Khalam, has come to visit his Blood Bank is a case in point to his popularity (the President of India cannot officially visit any organization, profit or non-profit). Every step he takes and every move he makes people watch him with love and affection. Chiranjeevi achieved what he did mainly because the masses and young, hard-working aspirants iden- tify themselves with him. With no Godfather in the industry to back him, Chiranjeevi started from scratch and moved up the hard way, being solely responsible for his own success. I think that’s what makes him popular and a real hero in the eyes of the Telugu people. It was I who first bid goodbye to Chiranjeevi. I didn’t know what else to ask. I could have asked about the contro- versy regarding his daughter’s marriage, but I didn’t want to ruffle his feathers any- more He seemed to relax and willing to talk more, getting friendly with my kids. But I didnt want to prolong my interview. Frankly, I didn’t want him to be angry with me. After all, I am his fan too! He walked us to the door, asking us to mail a copy and that he would want to see the interview in print. I promised to do so.
opposite him, I began my interview rather nervously. Chiranjeevi began browsing through the magazine. “This is good, andi . I am glad a lady from Andhra has started this, I am proud,” he said. “When did you start this?” he asked. “11 years ago,” I said. “Good. Why magazine? Are you a journal- ist by profession?” “Yes,” I said again. For a minute I did- n’t understand who’s interviewing whom. My readers would kill me! I took a deep breath, slowly reviving my confidence, and trying to take control of of the situa- tion. I started with, “Are you interested in politics? What are your future plans?” He looked straight into my eyes again and said, “No, I have no interest in poli- tics. I had to believe him. Unlike the other people who I interview, who normally look away from me, staring deeply into nothing while answering questions, Chiranjeevi has this habit of looking straight into your eyes while talking, slightly unnerving you. I was very much unnerved, that is. “I am not here to enter politics. I mean I know nothing about pol- itics. My business is films, acting. I enjoy doing that. I love acting. My fans like me because I am an actor. And I’d like to stick to that,” he said looking directly at me again with high conviction. Again I could- n’t help believing him. At least, in that minute, in that time, I decided I’ll take for granted that he’s telling the truth. What I believe otherwise, is a different story. In spite of two consecutive flops (Andharivaadu,JaiChiranjeeva) Chiranjeevi didn’t seem to lose his poise. However, his insecurity was exhibited in the speech he gave that evening at the ATA conference, “Long time ago, I was very depressed and sad when I had a few continuous flops. I began thinking that my fans don’t like me anymore. Life felt useless and worthless. Around that period, I had to go to a con- ference in Vijayawada, and there the amount of fans that received me and fol-
However, he seemed happy and content to see such a huge fan following all the way in Los Angeles and even touched by the emotion. His long extempore and emo- tional speech showcased it. If his forth- coming film ‘Stalin’ doesn’t click then he might slightly lose it. That thought prompted me to the next question — “Why choose such films as you do, which don’t really have enough material?” For his age and popularity he can really move on to good films such as Amitabh seems to have moved on to. “Even films like Aparichithudu and Gajani seem to make more sense and are more meaningful to the audience than your pulpy emotional meaningless movies, which seem to stick to the same formula with young heroines parading half-naked around you?” “My fans expect that from me. And I don’t think my movies are senseless,” said Chiranjeevi wth a hard look at me, that froze me to the bone. “Anyway I have done a variety of roles that people loved me in,” he brushed off my topic casually. But how about movies like ‘Sarkar’ which Ram Gopal Verma did with Amitabh or ‘Omkar’ with Ajay Devgan. With resources such as Chiranjeevi’s, he can practically have any story or director. Why stick to old puppy movies? “I am looking into scripts and in future probably I will. Actually ‘Stalin ’ is a movie that has a very good story and a strong message that people can follow,” he explained. Chiranjeevi was awarded the title of Padmabhushan recently, which made the whole Telugu industry proud. How did he feel about it? “I received the award solely for my acting prowess and not for my ser- vices as an actor,” Chiranjeevi revealed proudly. “It has nothing to do with my social services such as Chiranjeevi Charitable Trust, Eye Foundation or Blood Bank. I enjoy doing these services. God has shown me a way to serve people. But primarily I am an actor. And I am grateful
12 www.indiaparentmagazine.org
October 2019
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